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Dental School Blogger Punishment Reduced

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the speaking-one's-mind dept.

John McAdams writes "When a Marquette University Dental School student blogger made some nasty comments about an (unnamed) professor and (unnamed) classmates on his personal blog, the Dental School administration imposed a draconian punishment on him. He was to be suspended from school for a year, lose a prestigious scholarship, and seek counseling for supposed "behavioral problems." The case received wide attention, starting with local talk radio, the local daily paper and reverberated through the blogsphere. Dental School Dean William Lobb, considering the case on appeal, has now reduced the student's punishment. The student now faces probation rather than suspension, will be allowed to keep his scholarship, and will not have to seek counseling. He will have to do 100 hours of community service, and apologize for the blog posts. While this is certainly good news for the student, it leaves open the question of how much freedom Marquette Dental School students have in posting on their personal, non-university connected blogs."

6 of 444 comments (clear)

  1. Dental Blogging by toupsie · · Score: 5, Funny

    Is it safe?... Is it safe?

    --
    Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
  2. What did the student say? by IntelliAdmin · · Score: 5, Informative

    If anyone is wondering what the student wrote that got the school so pissed off. Here it is: "[He is a] cockmaster of a teacher. I don't even gratify him by calling him a professor. He is one who teaches, as in should teach infants and children." The rest of his blog was about video games, drinking and other typical stuff. His blog is now currently offline. Ironically, Marquette University encourages students to post public comments about their professors, and these comments can be very negative.

    1. Re:What did the student say? by lysergic.acid · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That's technically right. There's nothing illegal or unconstitutional about what they're doing since they're a private institution, but it's still unethical for them to abuse their power like that. Also, since many private universities still receive government funding and enjoy certain privileges as academic institutions, they have a little more social responsibility to set a good example for the rest of society. The student's actions were neither disruptive nor injurous to anyone, so the university had no right to suppress his freedom of expression under duress of academic threats. An individual should not have to forfeit their right to free speech in order to pursue an academic career.

      If no one stands up to these kinds of abuses of power by our academic institutions, then the state of academia in our society will continue to degenerate in this manner--becoming more repressive, more reactionary, and eventually becoming institutions which stifle original thought and individuality instead of fostering it. This will only turn our nation's youth away from higher education and foster more anti-intellectualism in our society.

  3. Blogs are turning into a great revenge tool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    1. pick one of the guys who gives you shit at school.
    2. Start up a blog in his name.
    3. Write unflattering commentary about the school.
    4. Kick back and watch as the school jumps to conclusions, bans the guy, and takes six months bureaucratic time looking at the situation before realising maybe it isn't really his blog.

    You don't have to worry about little things like investigations in #4 happening BEFORE the guy is suspended because hey, this is the private arena, and there's no such thing as due process.

  4. Re:unnamed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    They were unnamed in the blog as well.

  5. you're what's wrong with capitalism by misanthrope101 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Okay, so you're not really what's wrong with capitalism. But I have always hated that we have to be defined, 24/7, by what we do to buy bread for the table. A dentist fixes teeth. Wow. It's a profession, not an identity. By your logic, they could demand that you vote Republican, copulate only on Tuesdays, etc. They don't own you just because you want to be a physician. They aren't even guarantors of the competence or knowledge of physicians--they're just a trade union who is trying to keep the numbers down to keep pay high. Yes, I know that they can get away with governing what you say even in a non-official capacity, but it's wrong to use their gatekeeper power to control criticism. Saying it's legal isn't saying it's right.

    If we don't recognize some limit to what an employer, school, or other organization can rightfully control, then a company can say "our official position is that we support the Iraq war, so we will all be voting here in the office in the next election. Just turn your ballot in to your supervisor." There has to be a socially recognized limit, even if the courts don't address the question directly.

    And no, I'm not a Marxist. But we do have an unnerving tendency to turn our profession into an all-encomassing identity. It's just a freakin' job, for crying out loud.