Christian Coons, affiliate professor of philosophy at Bowling Green State University (BGSU), is going through disciplinary proceedings that might result in his termination for a sequence of occasions that started with him elevating questions on how a job search was carried out, continued with him voicing considerations concerning the lack of proof being thought-about in an investigation of his division, and led just lately to his being faraway from campus mid-semester for sending emails asking for clarification and help.
[Charles Sheeler, photograph of Egyptian Sculpture, Metropolitan Museum of Art (detail)]
An outline of the complaints towards Coons is offered by John Ok. Wilson on the Academe Blog (the weblog of the American Association of University Professors). Wilson writes:
The controversy started in 2015, when the division employed a professor and Coons felt the candidate didn’t meet the {qualifications} for a historical past of philosophy place. Coons was instructed that “the applying alone leaves out vital data that is essential,” and he quickly came upon what was so necessary about this professor. In 2019, that professor helped the division obtain a $1.6 million grant from the libertarian Charles Koch Basis. Coons has expressed his view that the Koch cash corrupted the hiring course of within the division and continues to often increase these considerations in emails to colleagues…
There is no such thing as a doubt that Coons’ colleagues and the administration are irritated at him and would like he shut up concerning the previous disputes. Sadly for them, each educational freedom and the First Modification don’t permit their preferences to be imposed on Coons.
Coons is accused of three crimes: sending emails to college who didn’t wish to obtain them, insubordination for violating an order to not ship emails, and violating a provision within the union contract urging school to point out “respect” towards others.
First, there is no such thing as a proper to not obtain e mail. Individuals are completely free to disregard Coons, however to not silence him. What Coons wrote doesn’t meet a harassment commonplace.
Second, there is no such thing as a subordination as a result of there was by no means a direct no-contact order to Coons that sending emails would violate campus insurance policies. (Certainly, in a Feb. 1, 2023, e mail that led to his suspension, Coons wrote, “I nonetheless want a rule for the emails I can’t ship you. I’ve requested for steering from everybody, and nobody will share any guidelines.”) And there wasn’t a direct order as a result of a ban on sending emails is just not authorized.
The third cost towards Coons is extra complicated, however equally implausible. Coons is accused of violating a provision of the collective bargaining settlement (CBA) stating that school “must be respectful towards all members of the college group and are prohibited from any oral, written, or bodily actions that: (a) have the aim or impact of unreasonably interfering with a person’s employment or skilled efficiency; and/or (b) have the aim or impact of making an intimidating, hostile, offensive, or abusive local weather for a person’s employment, educational pursuits, dwelling atmosphere, or participation in a College exercise.” Clearly, saying that school “ought to” be “respectful” is just not enforceable, however making a hostile local weather is prohibited. Nonetheless, it’s exhausting to think about how undesirable emails from somebody powerless to do something could be deemed a hostile local weather. (Coons’ critics and the administration, by in search of to have him punished for his emails, have rather more clearly violated this rule by creating an intimidating local weather for Coons.)
The background to those complaints is difficult. (A few of it’s described in this previous post.) Coons himself has described the scenario this option to me:
In Spring 2018 I made a report of retaliation for inside complaints of criminality in my division—together with sexual discrimination, fraud, and potential self-dealing. The grievance and studies had been directed away from the suitable channels, and sat for a 12 months within the School of Arts and Sciences. The investigation was shortly carried out in Might 2019 by a pair of assistant deans after which closed—with out discover or motion taken. On this all events appear to agree. The dispute is concerning the nature of the investigation.
I keep the investigation was “faux”—all proof was barred, the findings had been inaccurate, and it exploited and knowingly suppressed the retaliation I had tried to complain about. I’ve skilled persistent unjust retaliation only for complaining concerning the matter.
BGSU and my friends keep the investigation was “sound,” that my allegations are both delusions or malicious fabrications, and that I’ve no grounds for grievance about my long-pending 2018 retaliation cost, as a result of three years later a “impartial investigator,” an out of doors lawyer, unofficially seemed into the central allegations.
Coons maintains that the skin lawyer’s investigation was partisan, flawed, and defamatory of him.
He says:
The present administrative motion during which I’m named is the newest in a sequence of blatant acts of discrimination, retaliation and abuse taken towards me following my preliminary questioning of the propriety and legality of a college choice course of in my division in consecutive years.
The evidentiary document reveals the work atmosphere in BGSU Philosophy reveals an excessive and increasing disaster of illicit, abusive, sexually discriminatory, and retaliative conduct. It additionally reveals BGSU Administration has only one sample of response: unrelenting, pricey, and excessive cover-ups and retaliation.
I had been topic to escalating sequences of retaliation like this earlier than—in 2016, 2018, and 2019—with out treatment. All for studies of misconduct, and every together with objections to sexual discrimination. However I’ve by no means recovered from what occurred in 2019.
In Summer season 2019, I made my first public complaints concerning the Pretend Investigation, and the uncared for studies of abuses by my Chair. My friends, directed by [Colleague X], stated I’ll not point out any misconduct by the Chair (in the course of the Chair Succession Assembly) because it already had been completely investigated by the assistant deans. However the allegations towards my Chair weren’t even within the scope of that investigation. [Colleague X] knew my allegations had been true and requested to assist, he had seen the proof—simply please be quiet till his Koch grant was signed—he pleaded. So I did. Now that it was signed, nevertheless, he and everybody else—with the assistance of BGSU Administration—went into cover-up mode and fabricated issues, apparently to have me fired.
The emails from Coons that kind the premise of the present disciplinary listening to—that are alleged to be situations of Coons making a hostile office for his friends and of violating a college “range and respect for the person” coverage of treating members of the college group “with civility and respect,” and that are alleged to warrant his removing from campus and potential termination—adopted a philosophy school assembly a couple of new departmental assertion of ideas and reporting coverage. On the assembly, Coons says, he voiced worries concerning the new coverage given the division’s historical past, referring to the retaliation he says he was topic to for making the sorts of studies that the brand new coverage requires. In response, Coons says, “the chair agreed to share proof that may assist handle the priority, and was open to dialogue and polling among the many school previous to the vote. No school member objected. The vote was then introduced by the Chair, by way of e mail.” You possibly can learn these emails (together with some others, for context) in chronological order here.
Molly Gardner left BGSU in 2020 to take a place on the College of Florida. On Twitter, she writes that the BGSU Philosophy Division appears to be concerned within the “coverup” technique of “make Christian Coons’s life so depressing that he resigns.” She provides: “I imply, additionally they made my life so depressing that I resigned. That’s a part of it, too. I utilized for at the least 20 completely different educational jobs, and if I didn’t get any of these jobs I used to be planning to simply depart academia.” She collects varied Twitter threads she has posted concerning the scenario at BGSU here. A few of these (e.g.) concern the consideration and remedy of girls candidates throughout a job search carried out by the division in 2015-16. Others concern the atmosphere there, resembling this thread during which the chair seems to misinform cover-up a false assertion he made that Coons opposed hiring her.
David Faraci (Durham), who earned his PhD at Bowling Inexperienced in 2012 (Coons was on his committee), has additionally written concerning the scenario at BGSU on Twitter, noting “how exhausting it’s to speak a couple of case this complicated, particularly to share proof when its weight in isolation is so completely different from its weight together.” You possibly can learn his thread on it here.
In his submit about Coons’s case, Wilson focuses on the punishments that Coons has been topic to and his potential termination:
Bowling Inexperienced must reject the concept that professors could be fired for vital emails, and repair procedures to make sure that investigations of protected speech (and preemptive suspensions) by no means occur once more. If Bowling Inexperienced fires Coons for making allegations of corruption, they’ll show he was proper.
A listening to about Coons’s potential termination had been scheduled for yesterday however has been postponed.
Observe: feedback on this submit are closed. Those that have firsthand information of what has been taking place at BGSU philosophy are welcome to e mail feedback to [email protected] for potential inclusion in an addendum to this submit.
