Should the University of Colorado professor be forced out because of her lecture on prostitution?

[Are_grits_groceries]

Students at the University of Colorado are organizing in support of longtime sociology professor Patti Adler, who they say was asked to retire at the end of this semester for a lecture she taught on prostitution.

Many students who attended her "Deviance in U.S. Society" lecture Thursday afternoon said Adler told the 500-person class that she wouldn't be coming back after winter break. She said Thursday's class was the last she'd ever teach at CU, but it wasn't by choice.

Adler was traveling to Maui on Friday, according to her husband and University of Denver sociology professor Peter Adler.

CU officials said Patti Adler is still a tenured faculty member.

"Professor Adler is a tenured faculty member at CU-Boulder and, as long as she remains at the university, we expect that she'll teach along with her other duties," said CU spokesman Mark Miller.
<snip>
http://www.dailycamera.com/cu-news/ci_24721349/cu-boulder-students-tenured-professor-patti-adler-being

Has she given this lecture in other years?
Hmmmmm.......

[frazzled]

1. I don't get it

The school says she's still a tenured faculty member and is expected to teach. She says she was forced out. Those are two completely contradictory positions, and only one of them can be right.

So what is it? Is it that they told her she shouldn't do the skit, and she decided to leave rather than do that? I'm confused.

[Are_grits_groceries]

2. The University can't legally make her leave.

However, they can make it a very uncomfortable place to be.
Apparently they informally have put pressure on her to retire while maintaining that they can't really do anything. They want her to leave before they have an issue on their hands that they assume is coming.

The PTB in any group can make those under them miserable. If you have ever had a boss who was not happy with your performance you find this out. They do not overtly break any laws and proving they did can be difficult. However, they make the job a very unhappy place to be.

[frazzled]

19. Um, so she's choosing to leave

Look, I know about tenure and university politics (I'm married to a university professor). She says she was "forced" out. No, if she's tenured and not being fired (yes, you can be fired even if you're tenured), then no matter what they told her, which may have been simply "don't do that stupid skit anymore because students have been complaining," she was not "forced" out. She could stay as long as she liked. She could even continue to do the skit.

Maybe she just wanted to go to Hawaii. Maybe she got an offer to teach elsewhere. I don't have a lot of sympathy here. Especially when this article is so poorly written it doesn't even reveal what really happened.

[PowerToThePeople]

3. calling something "deviant"

Whom's standards shall we use to determine this deviance?

[seabeyond]

5. the professor or academia who are teaching the courses? nt

[PowerToThePeople]

7. show me some stats

What threshold is used to define deviant? I would theorize that many things accepted as societal norms are, in reality, more deviant than prostitution.

[seabeyond]

8. why should i show you shit? you asked a question. who? i told you who. the end

[PowerToThePeople]

9. why do you need to get pissy?

I was not tasking you directly.

[seabeyond]

10. "show me some stats" sounds like a demand to me. hence, pissy. if not... thank you

for the clarification.

see. flexible.

[PowerToThePeople]

11. it was directed at the one claiming the deviance

In this case, the prof.

If you make this claim too, just back it up.

[seabeyond]

12. o.k. as i said in my post below. not enough info to draw any kind of thought or conclusion at all,

imo.

[fishwax]

16. things that are accepted as societal norms are by definition not deviant

Deviance is, sociologically speaking, that which violates norms. It doesn't necessarily carry a value judgment. Most of the discussion of deviance in sociology classes I took was rather enthusiastic

[PowerToThePeople]

20. I am just talking statistically. n/t

[seabeyond]

4. the article really says nothing about what hapened in the class so there is no way at all to have an

opinion. maybe in time it will be more clear what is up. interesting though. this was one of the schools top on sons list.

[LittleBlue]

6. I was supportive until this paragraph

The prostitution lecture is given as a skit in which many of Adler's teaching assistants dress up as various types of prostitutes. The teaching assistants portrayed prostitutes ranging from sex slaves to escorts, and described their lifestyles and what led them to become prostitutes.

I really hope those TAs did this because they wanted to participate and not because they were feeling peer pressure (or pressure from the prof) to dress up as prostitutes. That would be wrong.

[Blue_Tires]

13. Why even do that?

There are countless former or reformed sex workers she could have brought in for a real Q&A

[LittleBlue]

15. Very true

Bizarre decision. Wouldn't surprise me if this wasn't her first serious error in judgment and the university just wants to get rid.

[Eleanors38]

14. My late Dad used to teach controversial units in his

Upper division & grad courses using TAs & student volunteers. He'd be fired today.

[Eleanors38]

17. Maybe, but the could have had a good time in their roles.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

18. That's what happens when profs challenge students to think rather than memorize.

And what is a good citizen? Simply one who never says, does or thinks anything that is unusual. Schools are maintained in order to bring this uniformity up to the highest possible point. A school is a hopper into which children are heaved while they are still young and tender; therein they are pressed into certain standard shapes and covered from head to heels with official rubber-stamps. - H.L. Mencken