{"id":3233,"date":"2021-10-23T13:26:10","date_gmt":"2021-10-23T18:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/?p=3233"},"modified":"2021-10-23T13:28:24","modified_gmt":"2021-10-23T18:28:24","slug":"rabble-rouser-get-the-boot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/2021\/10\/23\/rabble-rouser-get-the-boot\/","title":{"rendered":"Rabble Rouser get the Boot!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

COMMENTARY<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A rabble rouser gets the boot | Column<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\"Monte<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

MONTE BUTE<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

OCTOBER 20, 2021 6:04 AM<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
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 Getty Images.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a recent essay in The Atlantic<\/em><\/a>, the historian Anne Applebaum called out cultural institutions like universities, newspapers, foundations, and museums as \u201cThe New Puritans.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHeeding public demands for rapid retribution, they sometimes impose the equivalent of lifetime scarlet letters on people who have not been accused of anything remotely resembling a crime. Instead of courts, they use secretive bureaucracies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Applebaum\u2019s quotation aptly describes Metropolitan State University\u2019s recent retaliatory behavior, censoring a professor emeritus by locking his campus email account. Further, the university\u2019s president also censored the entire institution when she closed an email forum that was dedicated to free speech for university employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both actions were reactions to a public campaign to preserve the university\u2019s name. We had discovered that outside consultants and top administrators were considering changing the university\u2019s moniker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I sent a university-wide, \u201cdisrespectful\u201d email to a vice-president of marketing, confronting her efforts to change the name of the university. I was brought up on charges and found \u201cguilty.\u201d My complainant remained anonymous; I was unable to confront my accuser before a visible and known bureaucratic judge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs a result of this investigation and the finding that you violated the policy through your use of email,\u201d wrote the provost, \u201cyour privileges for your metrostate.edu<\/a> email address will be revoked immediately.\u201d There is no appeal available . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s the final nail in my campus coffin. I was scheduled to co-teach a graduate course as an adjunct in spring of 2022. The College of Liberal Arts dean sent an email to the program coordinator saying that she had removed me as an instructor for the course and purged me as an adjunct faculty member.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their marketing plan was part of a nationwide corporatizing strategy to \u201crebrand\u201d universities into more \u201cmarketable\u201d entities, in relentless competition with other universities. Rebranding is often seen as the last resort of organizations in decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metro State is the most successful of Minnesota State\u2019s seven state universities and 30 community colleges at maintaining high enrollments in an era of declining populations seeking higher education. The university, its faculty and students continue to receive local, state, regional and national accolades. We are already doing quite well, thank you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If it ain\u2019t broke, why mess with success? Since its founding in 1971, Metro State has always been a maverick institution. Before it even opened its doors,  the chair of the prestigious Carnegie Commission on Higher Education was proclaiming the school as \u201cperhaps the most innovative institution of higher education in the United States.\u201d During its 50th anniversary year, let\u2019s stick with a winning strategy \u2013 stay the course!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The university president also shut down the university-wide discussion forum, a virtual venue where every employee was free to exchange and debate ideas and opinions. She sent an all-campus email: \u201cI\u2019d like to share with you that I and the President\u2019s Executive Cabinet have made the decision to discontinue access to the unmoderated email list, METRO-Discuss, effective Tuesday April 27. . . . This email list does more harm to individuals and campus culture that is warranted by any positive value we might identify from continuing this approach.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our campaign to save the institution\u2019s name, Metropolitan State University, succeeded. During Convocation Week in August, the administration gave up its quest for a new name, announcing that the name of the university would not change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, I remain frozen out of my university email account, and the METRO-Discuss venue is no more, buried in the bowels of an information and technology bureaucratic tomb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What next? After 37 years of award-winning teaching and institutional stewardship, I finally retired last spring at age 76, so they cannot fire me. Wait, they just fired me as an adjunct instructor! Will my honorific title, professor emeritus, also be rescinded?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rude, crude and savagely confrontational: These discourses are time-tested measures of any organization\u2019s commitment to free speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Free speech is a fine thing, until it begins to threaten the bedrock foundation of an undemocratic academic bureaucracy. Then the authorities begin accusing critics of violating the opaque rules of a \u201cRespectful Workplace\u201d policy, finding them guilty, and punishing them. I admit the emails (including some of mine) sometimes impolitely questioned the president and her administration\u2019s decision making. Additionally, individual administrators were bluntly challenged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bureaucracy has won, for now. I am yoked with a lifetime scarlet letter within my beloved university. However, as the Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei put it, \u201cCensorship is saying: \u2018I\u2019m the one who says the last sentence. Whatever you say, the conclusion is mine\u2019. . . . The people will always have the last word \u2014 even if someone has a weak, quiet voice. Such power will collapse because of a whisper.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At my retirement party in May, my friends and colleagues resolutely whispered in unison; they gave me a plaque with this epithet: \u201cThe Great Gadfly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editor\u2019s note: Given the chance to respond to Bute\u2019s allegations, a Metro State University spokesperson sent the Reformer a statement: \u201cAs part of research for university branding project there was a survey regarding the name and other attributes of the university. There was a lively campus debate about Metro State\u2019s name, with many differing opinions expressed. The result of the process is that the university will keep its full legal name, and as we\u2019ve done in the past, refer to ourselves as Metro State University. The assertion that there was any retaliation directed at Mr. Bute is not accurate.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

COMMENTARY A rabble rouser gets the boot | Column MONTE BUTE OCTOBER 20, 2021 6:04 AM  Getty Images. In a recent essay in The Atlantic, the historian Anne Applebaum called out cultural institutions like universities, newspapers, foundations, and museums as \u201cThe New Puritans.\u201d \u201cHeeding public demands for rapid retribution, they sometimes impose the equivalent of lifetime scarlet letters […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3233"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3235,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3233\/revisions\/3235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}