Far be it for me to miss the news practically in my own back yard, but as I glanced over the news for the past few weeks I had not realized the connection. Recently Dr. Guillermo Gonzalez, the same professor who caused an uproar at Iowa State University for promoting the theory of Intelligent Design, was denied tenure. Dr. Gonzalez, without making the issue himself, was mocked with a "petition" claiming that his ideas and theories that relate to intelligent design should not be taught at institutions of learning. Apparently academic freedom only goes so far - you know, until you study something the academic elite disagrees with.
I'm not saying that there is necessarily any connection between Dr. Gonzalez's ideas and his denial of tenure, but he sure thinks so.
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2 comments:
It would appear that he was denied tenured primarily because of his lack of research and grant money generation.
From the DesMoines Register:
"The Des Moines Register reported Thursday that university records showed that Gonzalez had raised significantly less research and grant money than his peers in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.
Iowa State has sponsored $22,661 in outside grant money for Gonzalez since July 2001, records show. In that same time period, Gonzalez's peers in physics and astronomy secured an average of $1.3 million by the time they were granted tenure."
As you can see, I made no definitive assumptions to the reasons for his denial of tenure. It's just interesting if, as Dr. Gonzalez says, the decision had already been made before the end of 2005, when the Iowa State faculty made an unprecedented move by protesting a fellow faculty member's research and published work.
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