Professor causes uproar asking Biden voters to unfriend him

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) — A Facebook post by a dean at Virginia Wesleyan University in which he asked people who voted for Democrat Joe Biden to unfriend him has caused an uproar at the private liberal arts school in Virginia Beach.

Paul Ewell, a business professor and dean of the university’s Global Campus, wrote that anyone who chose Biden for president is “ignorant, anti-American and anti-Christian,” the Virginian-Pilot reported Friday. In response, people posted dozens of comments on the university’s Facebook page describing the post of the “high-ranking, high-profile member” of the university’s leadership as “unacceptable” and “embarrassing.”

Alumni threated to stop donations, while parents said they are reevaluating whether to enroll their children. Students are debating a demonstration.

University spokeswoman Stephanie Smaglo told the newspaper the school does not comment on personnel matters, but it is addressing the situation through its “internal processes and policies.”



Read more: https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-virginia-virginia-beach-455c69f25d21697e9ce8b4fbcd536e23

[Sherman A1]

1. The level of stupid amongst this supposedly highly educated professor is sad

The moron posted this statement and expected no repercussions? Or was he just wanting to get fired?

[Dustlawyer]

24. Probably has tenure so it may be difficult to fire him.

[OhioTim]

26. Maybe

Doubt that little school has a faculty union or even tenure.

[Mary Mac]

38. Easier to leave the college.

[diverdownjt]

85. Censure is what your looking for.

Firing is out of the question.

[zanana1]

88. There are quite a few smart, stupid people out there.

One of my former GP's studied medicine at Harvard. He knew a lot about medicine but was clueless in other ways.

[Miguelito Loveless]

2. "ignorant, anti-American and anti-Christian,"

That is the textbook definition of a Trump supporter.

[bluestarone]

3. EXACTL!!!!!!!!!!

Funny how they are the ones they THINK we are!! SO fucking stupid, these people are!!

[Miguelito Loveless]

12. Also, they are the textbook definition

of "projection".

[sakabatou]

9. Yup

[Missn-Hitch]

74. Anti-Christian? Ha! tRump is the Evangelical Pope.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

77. And, of Trump himself.

RW hypocrisy is mind-boggling. For one thing, I can guarantee you iDJT has never even read the US Constitution. What's more unAmerican than supporting that particular point of ignorance?

[LiberalLovinLug]

87. "anti-Christian"

Joe Biden is a devout Christian Catholic who goes to church weekly

vs

Donald Trump who never goes to church unless its for a photo op. Says he doesn't need God's forgiveness, can't name one verse when asked, and uses vulgarity and vindictiveness and meanness and dishonesty daily

Never understood how folks like this can believe that.

[magicarpet]

4. So this professor must be a member in good standing of the AmeriKKKan Republican Fascist Party ?

[martalcd]

5. He's a true Trump moron...

if he didn't know you could take a screenshot of a Facebook post and send it around the world. A five-year-old kid today knows how to do that.

[stopbush]

6. Anti-christian? Guilty as charged!

Fuck the Xians.

[Ligyron]

19. Yup, me too!

cult of death.

[Butterflylady]

7. This is what I'm having trouble understanding.

Highly educated people voting for rump.

I don't get it and probably never will.

[SophieJean]

10. Not really that complicated,

He's a Christofascist racist, and trump is their idea of a perfect leader, regardless of their income or education.

[PatSeg]

13. And highly educated people

who don't know better than to post stupid crap on social media. Then they are shocked when there are repercussions. You kind of expect that of a fifteen year old, but not a professor.

[diane in sf]

17. In colleges it's people in the business department that vote Republican. They're not into all that

much critical thinking. Most of the rest of the faculty probably votes Democratic.

[Redleg]

27. Rebuttal

While it is true that B-School professors tend towards right of center, there are a good many of us on the left. In my own department (Management), around 80% of us supported Biden. As for not engaging in critical thinking, I disagree with that statement as well. Our faculty have Ph.D.s from R-1 universities and we conduct empirical research in addition to our teaching duties. We are as experienced with critical thinking as any other academic discipline in the university, excepting perhaps philosophy, which likely has us all beat.

[reACTIONary]

83. +10...

... stereotyping and over generalization are very lazy and sloppy mental habits.

[Mosby]

35. Economic professors are the worst in my experience.

A lot of them believe all that invisible hand crap.

They view taxes as a sin against God.

[salin]

43. My late father was an economics professor. FDR dem. Believed that regulation was necessary for

those free markets to work - because ... GREED. He was a Keynesian, and John Kenneth Galbraith was on his committee.

He couldn't stand the work of Milton Freidman - thought it was shoddy and damaging.

He was part of the 'not' of the a lot of them.

[Lonestarblue]

45. I'm with your father. Milton Friedman and that whole Chicago School was a disaster.

All they did was ensure the transfer of wealth to the top 10% and most of that to the top 1%. Friedman and his free market economics is why we have so much economic inequality today.

[salin]

51. Agreed. And A Greed - which was central to his (and the Chicago School's influence) 'theories'.

And A Greed - which was central to his (and the Chicago School's influence) 'theories' - and the key why, taken to the extremes pursued by the modern GOP (80s on), they sapped the economic engines (work) of this country - and then moved towards privatization of public services as the next frontier for extracting wealth for the few while leaving degrades services for the rest. Hence Betsy DeVos, queen of K-16 privatization of public education and public dollars.

[olegramps]

78. Their saint is Ayn Rand. The same philosophy of greed justification.

[appalachiablue]

49. Glad to know that, John M Keynes had it right. Luckily

I saw John Kenneth Galbraith lecture once when I was in HS.

Friedman, the 'Free Market' and Reaganomics has done enormous damage.

[salin]

53. My nephew was 8 when his grandfather died.

Nearly 20 years later he texted me from an evening course for his MBA program: "Was Morfar a Keynesian?" "Why yes he was... " I responded. I was rather stunned. Later I asked him - he was in a lecture that was explaining Keynesian economic theories and he remembered my dad/his Morfar explaining that he was going to buy a car at that time because he thought it would help stimulate the economy. This was during the 1991 recession. He was 7 years old. My Dad was a bit of a force of nature when he explained things. Lol.

And his grandson - is quite liberal in his economic, millennial views. My dad would be proud.

Thanks for sparking that memory, and indulging me in sharing it.

*Morfar = mother's father from our norwegian american tradition.

[appalachiablue]

59. Good story, thanks for sharing, it's great when kids recall

things from family and earlier times. 'Morfar,' interesting tradition.

[JI7]

23. Business schools are mostly BS

[Redleg]

31. We do offer a BS degree in Business

You're painting with a damned broad brush there. My colleagues in the B-School are committed to their work of teaching and research. We have quite a few faculty who are doing work in areas that we liberals should appreciate such as sustainable economies, green business, health-care economics, workplace justice, business ethics, and corporate social responsibility to name just a few.

In my department (Management) there was at least 80% support for Joe Biden. Many of my closest friends in the college of business are liberals, one was a Bernie Sanders supporter with a raging crush on AOC. Several of my colleagues have been involved their whole lives in Democratic politics, and one was elected to the city council.

Our students are good too. Many of them leave the university with a deeper sense of social responsibility than when they started. A good number of our majors are willing to work in the human services fields rather than going to Wall Street and making their millions.

[JI7]

32. Ok, but that isn't how most business schools are.

[Redleg]

33. Have you been to most business schools?

My school might be unique but I think there are more like it out there, given what I know about from following the research trends in my field. Sure, b-schools will likely have more right of center people, but that doesn't necessarily make them sycophants for Trump. I would say that most of the faculty at our school don't like Trump's behavior or his business practices.

[ProfessorGAC]

50. There Are Plenty

But, the proportion populated by the libertarian extremist view, based in Austrian & Chicago School theories is high.
It doesn't have to be even half.
It's clear that 80s & 90s MBA programs proliferated the "profit & shareholder value is everything" thinking.
In the late 70s & early 80s, it was the B Schools that were pushing total quality principles and focus on stakeholders. By 2000, that was a rapidly receding point of view.
Fortunately, in many big companies, the quality principles infrastructure became embedded, but the stakeholder idea barely exists.

[salin]

56. I again, on behalf of my late father, curse at Milton Friedman.

He detested the line of work.

He also wasn't a big fan of the heavy influence the econometrics folks had on shifting the field in the 80s+ (he passed in the early 90s, so I don't know if that is still dominant in the field.).

[ProfessorGAC]

58. Understood

My contribution to the technical business world was teaching econometric modeling at the same school I got my MBA.
I was a scientist, but the company insisted on an MBA, they paid for. I didn't ever work in your dad's field, but did teach the techniques.
I hope your dad would understand that my positions were strictly mathematical with no bias toward desired outcomes.
On the bright side, I won an award for my paper in MBA school that mathematically proved Reagan's tax cuts had nearly no influence on the change in economic growth in the 80s. It was an unpopular paper, but the math was solid.

[salin]

60. He'd understand.

Last edited Sat Nov 14, 2020, 10:59 PM - Edit history (1)

He left college after Pearl Harbor - anticipating a draft, he enlisted. Through the GI bill, he was able to get his PhD in economics at Harvard. He very much viewed the field as social science that could be used to improve/better the world.

His initial work was in anti trust and trying to define when the line was crossed into anti-competitive monopolistic behaviors that harmed markets. Mid career he was into applied economics into issues of public policy - such as forecasting costs and current and projected demand for energy, engaged students in that work and presented a study to the Indiana Public Utility Commission that projected that the costs of building and running a nuclear power plant would never pay itself off based on projected future demands/revenues. (Of course they didn't listen... it was approved and the project was a never completed disaster that I believe caused utility customers to pay higher prices to cover I think a billion or so $.) 30 years later we repeated the mistake with a Duke Energy plant.

His last domain work of work was on executive compensation - and how the ways CEOs received bonuses on quartlerly performance almost immediately was undercutting investment in R & D and longer term investment and planning, in favor of plans to gin up short term performance - he started this work in the early 80s and involved into looking at the possible role of institutional investors (think the size of CalPers) in voting in large blocks to seat people on corporate boards who favored changing top exec compensation by raising the annual salary and delaying the quarterly bonuses to start in year 5 (or so) - to encourage the longer range planning for the overall health/long term performance/growth of the company. Sadly he had cancer that cut off that work in the early 90s.

Point being, his work was borne from his training under faculty like John Kenneth Galbraith, from an earlier era - and work that didn't meld with the econometrics field (plus he may have just been an old dog, set in his ways, by the time that work took off), and the direction the Chicago School et al was at direct odds (all about ginning up profits - and none about long term growth) with his work and his view of the field of economics. There were a number of FDR influenced older economists here, back in Dad's days.

Thanks for the opportunity to reminisce, I have a warm smile as I type this.

[ProfessorGAC]

67. Great Story!

Reminisce away!
It was a good read!

[salin]

69. :D

Thanks for that!

[Redleg]

73. In B-Schools corporate social responsibility seems to be a growth area

That along with business ethics and sustainable/green business are really encouraged.

Believe it or not, many of the B-school profs I know are fairly enlightened about the problems with unregulated capitalism and the maximization of shareholder value perspective. I earned a masters degree at one B-School and Ph.D. at another and teach at a third. I will never forget my econometrics professor telling the class (I paraphrase): thank god supply-side economics has been proven to be an unrealistic model of economic behavior. Now I can teach about what seems to make sense most of the time."

I know I have a few colleagues who cling to Milton Friedman and the "Freshwater" perspective of economics, but nobody wants to talk to those assholes anyway because they are unpleasant people. Most of us seem to range from the moderate liberal to moderate conservative in terms of politics. Very few like Trump. Very few think that we ought to run the university like a business (except for some of the higher administration but screw them anyway).

You also have to realize that MBA programs are designed to sell to corporations who sponsor/pay for some of their employees to get their MBAs. We have to offer an attractive assortment of courses to them. But to some extent, the faculty still design the curriculum and if we want to emphasize corporate social responsibility or business ethics or sustainable business, we will do so. Doctoral programs are more like traditional Ph.D. programs where the emphasis is on scholarly inquiry.

I can't speak about all disciplines within the B-School, but my discipline (Organizational Behavior) has a very strong empirical foundation that we share to some extent with our brothers and sisters in Industrial/Organizational Psychology and our cousins in social psychology and industrial sociology. We may have a more pro-business bias, but it's not clear that's true of all of us in the field. Our work helps humanize the practice of management and even economics and finance to some extent.

As a liberal I can say that I have been comfortable in my B-School, finding some kindred spirits and other thoughtful and concerned faculty who care about many of the same things that I do. I realize that different B-Schools may not be as welcoming as mine, but I like to think that they are not nearly as monolithically far right as many here seem to believe.

[salin]

54. Doesn't suprise me.

My father didn't teach in the B-School, but in the Dept of Economics, but did work with a lot of B School faculty. Lots of liberals.

Here (I am now back in my home town - and familiar with the local U.) we have a major undergrad B School - which engages students in many social cause efforts in the community.

[greenjar_01]

72. ROFL

Thank you!

[greenjar_01]

71. I mean, he's a business professor

That's being a professor in the same way that the high school football coach is a history teacher. It's mostly just parroting the latest neoliberal fad and a faint knowledge of statistics.

[CurtEastPoint]

8. EXACTLY what I was imagining....

[Hassin Bin Sober]

22. Figures.

[Evolve Dammit]

48. Who would have "friended" him to begin with?? Nice chins. Have some chips, you'll feel better

[PatSeg]

11. You have a signed copy of Joe's book, Promises to Keep?

[Omaha Steve]

14. Yes it is beautiful

Got it in person in 2007.

[PatSeg]

16. Oh, that is wonderful

I have a copy sitting right next to me now. I read it in 2007 and since passed it on to others to read. I bought a new copy when Joe won the nomination. It is an excellent read, though very emotional at times. I recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about our next president.

What a treasure that must be!

[Indykatie]

15. Did This Fool Have a Secret Wish to Lose His Job - He Had to Know This W/N End Well n/t

[Redleg]

18. B-School Professors for Biden!

In my department in our B-School (Management), we have over 80% faculty support for Biden. Most of us simply despise Trump and a good number of us genuinely like Biden. I think our wingnuts are mainly in the Finance department, and there are probably just a few.

[Cryptoad]

20. "unfriend " him,,,,my arse

Block that ass hole!

[keithbvadu2]

21. Maybe he likes how Trump 'witnesses' for his faith by adultery, lies, and much more.

Maybe he likes how Trump 'witnesses' for his faith by adultery, lies, and much more.

It's such a good example for his fellow Christians and children.

[Phoenix61]

25. Self correcting problem. He really should be

thanked for self-identifying.

[yuiyoshida]

28. did he go to TRUMP University?

or some ULTRA right wing indoctrination method?? this is nuts.

[ProfessorGAC]

29. Why Did I Know It Was A B-School Prof?

Probably a randian fool, who is still stuck in the cartoon Austrian School.
Econ profs are very often libertarian or further right.

[CatLady78]

52. Yeah-there are statistical differences based on field

Last edited Sun Nov 15, 2020, 08:03 AM - Edit history (1)

I have seen the breakdowns off and on and they make sense. Astronomers/Astrophysicists tend to be disproportionately liberal/left leaning...it makes sense...it is an especially mind expanding area.
People in the natural sciences tend to be more left leaning than economists and so on...more tethered to the actual laws of reality over areas dealing with human behavior (which is subject to manipulation).

[ProfessorGAC]

55. My Personal Experience

Working with scientists and engineers, was scientists lean heavily liberal engineers to the right.
But, a lot of it seems more libertarianism, than radical right stuff.
As a retired scientist with 42 years with multinationals, and their customer R&D and supplier technical, I've worked with hundreds.
BTW: my company sent me for an MBA in the 90s, then I taught some classes in econometric modeling at the same school. So, I've been inside that realm.
I've gotten exposure to two very different disciplines. So, my experience is anecdotal, but the sample size is pretty large.
Plenty of room for differences, though. I've known hundreds, not hundreds of thousands!

[marble falls]

30. Send him to Liberty University.

[dalton99a]

34. Democrats not welcome:

Virginia Wesleyan professor Paul Ewell, pictured here in 2009 in relation to a watermen's museum project, has caused controversy at the university with a Facebook post he made after the recent presidential election.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

90. I'm sure he thinks he's another George Clooney. EWWWWW

Last edited Mon Nov 16, 2020, 10:20 PM - Edit history (1)

GAK. That's my favorite astrophysicist, Brian May, Ph.D. in my avatar. My personal Jesus.

[mdbl]

36. Where did they find that weirdo?

Last edited Sat Nov 14, 2020, 09:56 PM - Edit history (1)

Was Trump University on his resume?

[not fooled]

40. Perhaps a kook plant?

The 666kook666 brother(s) have a whole program designed to put like-minded souls on the faculty across the nation. Independent thinkers need not apply. Must be die-hard adherent to kook-think.

[link:https://www.unkochmycampus.org/|]

[Hortensis]

37. It might be appropriate for those internal processes to offer

psychiatric evaluation if he'd accept. People caught up in this giant social psychopathy need professional counseling, and perhaps in some cases it could be offered and paid by employers who prefer to fix, if possible, rather than fire.

Not saying I care overmuch if it was appropriate in this case or if it would save his guy's bacon, just speaking generally. But note that he's become self destructive and has apparently not hurt anyone else.

Professional help is badly needed to reconnect people to societal norms and values acceptable to them, and we need it to become common enough that it's not a strange thought. Other methods for those without the means for more could be on-line counseling groups and moderated self-help forums.

[Bengus81]

39. I thought Professors were all weed smoking,acid dropping Liburls trying to indoctrinate our youth

That's what RW nut jobs claim..............

[BlueMTexpat]

41. It's interesting

to think that he has ANY friends at all, let alone any who are Biden voters!

[LogicFirst]

42. What is with the anti-christian comment? We've had Satan in the WH for 4 years.

[3Hotdogs]

44. Meet the newest intro to business instructor at Culpepper Community College. N/T

[Steelrolled]

46. Who cares? This is the new American culture.

Zero tolerance for those with opposing views.

[COL Mustard]

57. Can I Friend Him First

So I can unfriend him? Guy sounds like a real glassbowl.

[vsrazdem]

61. is this the kind of free speech Alito said is being attacked. Duh, you can speak

freely, it does not mean there won't be consequences.

[Zambero]

62. This has potential for a "Hitler in the bunker" parody

"Anyone who has already unfriended me on Facebook, leave the room now!"

[salin]

63. What an idiot. Projection can be a self-owning event.

[JohnnyRingo]

64. So unfriend him

I don't think there's a reason to make a big deal about it. Who would want to associate themselves with him now?

[ucrdem]

65. Welp, no virtue signaling from this one at least

Gotta wonder WTF people are thinking sometimes . . .

[niyad]

81. You are assuming that thinking is involved?

[SWBTATTReg]

66. Don't unfriend him...just keep bothering him although it may not be worth the time and effort to...

deal w/ a piece of crap like this guy seems to be. A poor loser and also a poor judge of character obviously.

[SunSeeker]

68. He's such a snowflake!

[greenjar_01]

70. Dude is getting Dean money and acting like a petulant child

Dean money is nice money in academe.

What a fucking clown.

[DeltaLitProf]

75. Here's who become Deans

Usually the weakest researcher and teacher who has cosied up the most to the usually Republican Provost (Vice President of Academic Affairs) and college president (usually a political appointee of the GOP governor) get to become deans.

This is based on my 25 years of experience as a college instructor and professor.

[ResistantAmerican17]

79. Spot on. 29 years professor/lower level (director) admin who never wanted to play that game so

I never moved up the ladder.

[mjvpi]

86. Bingo. I married a scientist who is currently chair of her department.

Oh, the crap I hear about deans and provosts and up the food chain.

[niyad]

80. My guess is that this "professor" (I use the term VERY loosely!) has decided that he wants to be a

martyr. He deliberately did this bit of bs to create the expected outrage and backlash, then he will whine about suppression of ideas, how the liberals are attacking him, whine, whine, whine. Sob. Sob. Sob. Poor soul under attack. Next stop. . .talking head on oann.

[BlueWavePsych]

82. Idiot!

[Politicub]

84. What a man baby

Someone needs to give the dean his bottle.

[Nitram]

89. Just a little more Trumpian insanity.

Just stand back and watch it burn itself out.