The University of Vermont announced recently that actor, economist, former game show host, and proponent of Intelligent Design Ben Stein was giving the Commencement address to the Class of 2009. President Daniel Fogel was then inundated with emails (including one from Oxford biologist Richard Dawkins) expressing outrage at the decision. He also received many emails from parents who declared that no child of theirs would ever attend UVM if Stein spoke at Commencement and was awarded an honorary degree.
According to the Burlington Free Press, Fogel was unaware of Stein’s views on Evolution and his controversial allusions to the Holocaust and Nazi Germany. He called Stein, who politely bowed out. But that’s where the politeness ended. Stein gave a Blagojevich-worthy, obscenity-laced rebuttal in the Free Press.
Whatever you think of Ben Stein and his views on Intelligent Design, was Fogel’s decision based on academic principles or marketing? Do flaps like this one help or hurt a university’s reputation, and do parents really refuse to let their children apply to schools whose views don’t align with theirs?
UVM will probably not feel the fallout, as state schools, with their lower price tags, have gotten record numbers of applications this year. Economic factors aside, I doubt if anyone boycotted Ithaca College after Ben and Jerry gave an address a few years ago in which they were critical of the war in Iraq. But it begs the question: what motivates such decision-making? Is getting a big name Commencement speaker about media hype, alumni giving, or academic standards, or simply entertainment?
Comments
Once again, the scientific establishment has bamboosled the public into blackballing on of its disidents. "Heil Dawkins!" Everyone click your heels and salute!
Once again, the scientific establishment has bamboosled the public into blackballing on of its disidents. "Heil Dawkins!" Everyone click your heels and salute!
Oh, get over yourself, Wayne. (Repeat yourself much?) For one thing, Stein withdrew after Fogel asked him what the speech was to be about; Stein could have answered, if he believes in freedom of speech and academic freedom. Likewise, if Stein thinks he's fighting "Nazis" he should have shown more, er, backbone - but he only made Expelled for the money. Which didn't come. So now Ben Stein's distancing himself from the film (notice that all the PR about his upcoming commencement address at UVM didn't even mention Expelled once!) Some "dissident." I guess the post-production snake-handler tour, on which he claimed, "Science leads you to killing people," wasn't quite the ponzi scheme that he expected it to be. Enjoy being hoodwinked, do you?
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