Marquette counters John McAdams with ‘Myths vs Facts’ pages on website
Marrquette University has launched a full court, media campaign in their lawsuit with suspended professor, Dr. John McAdams, by setting up a web page on their site with their version of the “Facts About McAdams Case,” complete with a list of “Myths vs. Facts.”
McAdams is on paid leave after a suspension in December 2014 over a blog post in which he takes issue instructor, Cheryl Abbate, for telling students not to dispute the propriety of gay marriage in class because it would be “homophobic” to express opposition to the idea.
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In the post McAdams chronicles the events, not how Abbate “explained that ‘some opinions are not appropriate, such as racist opinions, sexist opinions’ and then went on to ask ‘do you know if anyone in your class is homosexual?’ And further ‘don’t you think it would be offensive to them’ if some student raised his hand and challenged gay marriage? The point being, apparently that any gay classmates should not be subjected to hearing any disagreement with their presumed policy views….She went on ‘In this class, homophobic comments, racist comments, will not be tolerated.’ She then invited the student to drop the class.”
McAdams counters, listing connections to liberal bias, squashing free speech and how Marquette, a Catholic institution, is “less and less a real university” for not allowing a conversation on these controversial religious topics.
Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) is representing McAdams and noted that a trial court initially ruled in favor of Marquette, but the Wisconsin Supreme Court subsequently agreed to bypass the Court of Appeals and take on the case itself. Oral arguments are scheduled to begin April 19, and WILL expects a ruling in June or July.
Marquette’s response: “Marquette lives by its Guiding Values, including cura personalis, or care for the whole person. We cannot and will not stand by when a professor needlessly and recklessly harms a student teacher by putting her name and contact information on the internet before a hostile audience without her permission. If John McAdams had written the exact blog post and omitted the student teacher’s name and contact information, no disciplinary action would have been taken.
“The McAdams vs. Marquette case strikes at the core of who we are as a university. When a professor violates professional responsibility toward one of our students, Marquette must be able to respond with discipline. This is not about academic freedom or freedom of speech – it is about a professor’s unprofessional conduct toward a student teacher that resulted in direct, irreparable harm. John McAdams treated our student in a manner that does not represent our Guiding Values as a Catholic, Jesuit university, and in doing so, violated his contract.”
So, the rationale is that McAdams called out Abbate by name and therefore put her “in direct, irreparable harm.”
The “Myths vs. Facts” goes on to paint McAdams in the wrong: recklessly posting on the blog without attempting any other corrective action; attacking a “student teacher” (a grad student); not penalized for his free speech or conservative views — the result of the upcoming hearing, proving which side is truthful will indeed decide this case.
