Tuesday, September 25, 2001

UT professor facing harsh criticism for opinion column
Associated Press

AUSTIN — A professor’s newspaper opinion piece about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks is at the heart of a free speech debate at the University of Texas.

UT professor Robert Jensen said he expected harsh criticism after writing that the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon were “no more despicable than the massive acts of terrorism” committed by the United States.

Jensen’s column was published in the Houston Chronicle on Sept. 14.
Angry e-mails and calls soon followed.

UT president Larry Faulkner joined the criticism. Last week he published a letter in the Chronicle distancing the university from Jensen’s views and personally denouncing the professor as “a fountain of undiluted foolishness on issues of public policy.”

Some students say they are worried that Faulkner’s public lashing out at Jensen is a warning that minority opinions are unwelcome. An opinion piece published Friday in The Daily Texan, the student newspaper at UT-Austin, urged Faulkner to apologize to Jensen.

UT senior Clare Major, in a letter Monday in The Daily Texan, wrote that “I am utterly dumfounded that, as president of my university, you would publicly make a personal attack on a UT professor.”

But law student Lance Clack in another letter Monday thanked Faulkner for his comments. “Too often a small and radical minority on this campus are allowed to give the false impression that they speak for a majority of UT students,” Clack wrote.

Jensen, 43, a former journalist who started teaching journalism at the university in 1992, said he received tenure three years ago. Tenure is designed to protect professors from being fired for their ideas.

But Jensen said he would have spoken out whether he had tenure or not.

Jensen described his politics as “mostly left-progressive.” He said he has spoken on radio shows and published columns on Web sites to give “an alternative voice” to coverage of the terrorist attacks. Reaction has been about half positive and half negative, he said.

Jensen said he has not experienced any problems at work because of his article or Faulkner’s response.

Faulkner pointed out in his letter and in a subsequent interview that Jensen has a right to free speech, but said he has the duty to make it clear the professor doesn’t speak for the university.

Faulkner said he felt compelled to personally criticize Jensen’s position because of the enormity of the attacks. He said he has never done such a thing before.

Though many people have asked him to fire Jensen, Faulkner said “it would be far more damaging to the university to undertake to penalize someone for free expression.”

In 1997, a similar university denunciation was launched by top UT officials against law professor Lino Graglia, who said that Hispanics and blacks don’t succeed academically at some white institutions because their culture doesn’t discourage failure.

The chairman of the UT System Board of Regents, the UT System chancellor and the UT-Austin president at the time called Graglia’s remarks an insult and damaging stereotype.

Graglia has maintained for years that his remarks were purposely misconstrued because he opposes affirmative action. He said he made his comments only after being asked whether cultural forces or genetics were more likely the cause of lower scores by minorities.