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| Dr. James Bowley |
So, that YouTube post was
on the Esoterica channel, hosted by Dr. Justin Sledge. Normally, Esoterica “produces
content relating to topics such as alchemy, magic, Kabbalah, mysticism,
hermetic philosophy, theosophy, the occult and more using the best academic
scholarship currently available.” It’s a
popular channel, with nearly 800,000 subscribers. Curmie currently has precisely zero YouTube
subscriptions, but he just might take the plunge on this one.
Dr. Sledge (bio here)
is clearly a well-respected scholar, so his condemnation of Millsaps College’s recent
actions as “utterly outrageous and a complete betrayal of the kind of values I
was taught as a student at Millsaps” carries some weight. Yes, Sledge is Millsaps alumnus, specifically a
former mentee of Dr. James Bowley, who remains on the faculty there. Well, sort of. Bowley has been suspended by the college because
he sent an email to three (Count ‘em!
Three!) students in the wake of the 2024 Presidential election.
Specifically, administrators say that Dr. Bowley used his “Millsaps
email account to share personal opinions with [his] students.” Of course, professors share personal opinions
with students all the time—or they’d damned well better do so! The phrasing of the opinion is further
evidence of the fact that the average college or university administrator is
incapable of using the English language correctly. There is no hope for them… unless, of course,
they choose to run for POTUS. (Meow.)
Despite the attempt to frame the issue as using a college
account for an unapproved purpose, what really has their skivvies in a twist is
the fact that Bowley’s comments were of a political nature: cancelling his Abortion
and Religions class on the day after the election to “mourn and process this
racist and fascist country.”
Curmie suspects that the administration would have been fine
with Bowley’s sending out an email rejoicing with his students at “the defeat
of DEI candidate Harris and the return to American values,” or some such rubbish. This, of course, is only conjecture on Curmie’s
part, but he’s pretty confident of this conclusion.
Anyway, let’s look at a couple of facts that seem to be undisputed. There were only three students in that class,
and Bowley claims he “knew them very, very well and.. knew it was not a good
day for them to have class.” He says he was “trying to be kind, empathetic, and
understanding to a small class of students.”
Anyway, one of those students posted the email on Instagram. Whether Bowley didn’t know this student as
well as he claims or the student is just a naïf who didn’t consider possible
repercussions isn’t clear. What definitely
did happen is that a student not in the class saw it and narked to the administration. Of course they did.
Interim Provost Stephanie Rolph placed Bowley on administrative
leave just two days after the email was sent, without any formal hearing. He was forbidden to go on campus and denied
access to his college email account. This
appears to be a clear violation of Bowley’s right to due process. And this isn’t just Curmie saying this: it’s
the lawyers at FIRE (the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression). Regular readers of this blog know that Curmie
is a FIRE member, and he does urge you, Gentle Reader, to check out the letter sent by Haley Gluhanich, the organization’s Senior Program Officer for Campus
Rights Advocacy.
But (as they say on the late-night infomercials) Wait! That’s not all! “Even if Bowley’s speech were to be
considered within the scope of his job duties, many U.S. circuit courts have
recognized protection for a great deal of faculty expression, including ‘speech
related to matters of public concern, whether that speech is germane’ to the
class or not…. As the Supreme Court has
said, ‘[w]hatever differences may exist about interpretations of the First
Amendment, there is practically universal agreement that a major purpose of
that Amendment was to protect the free discussion of governmental affairs.’”
We can also add that when the case actually was turned over
to a faculty grievance committee (after, but apparently not related to, the
FIRE letter), that body recommended that Bowley immediately be reinstated and
given a public apology.
Of course, President Frank Neville decided that nation-wide
embarrassment was a reasonable enough price to pay in order to put a mere tenured
faculty member in his place. As is too
often the case, one administrator makes a stupid decision and everyone up the
food chain rallies around to protect the moron at the expense of justice. Remember the painting of Muhammad incident? Or the “Game of Thrones” t-shirt idiocy? Or the “Firefly” poster debacle? There are others, many others (alas), but
those three are the ones that came most immediately to mind.
Curmie searches for mitigation for the college administration’s
absurd actions. Here’s the best he can
do. 1). Cancelling class because of
election results borders on infantilization of students. 2). Curmie wasn’t happy about the election
results, either, but “racist and fascist country” is, as our Francophone
friends might say, un peu trop. 3). Using the college email account for such
a message may be a technical violation of college policy, one which is violated
dozens of times every day, but policy, nonetheless. Curmie remembers being urged long ago to include
a line in his signature that his opinions are his own and he doesn’t speak for
the university. Curmie refused, saying
he doesn’t correspond with anyone so stupid they don’t know that.
Notice that there seems to have been no objection to #1, or
ostensibly to #2 (although we all know better that to believe that). Urging Dr. Bowley to dial back the rhetoric
in the future might be appropriate; that’s it.
As for #3: “Please don’t do that again” would suffice. But insecure people in power will always try
to throw their weight around. There is
no conceivable way that anything Bowley did would justify even an investigation,
let alone any punishment more than a private reprimand.
It may be that the college just wants him gone for some
other reason—objecting to some idiotic idea proposed by the provost, for
example (Curmie has seen more than his share of those)—and this was the closest
thing they could come up with for cover.
Or they’re just authoritarian jackasses with the acuity of a radish. Your guess is as good as mine, Gentle Reader.
Oh, back to Dr. Sledge for a moment. He says in his screed on Esoterica that he is “going to make sure that [his] video is the highest ranking, most viewed video for anyone who searches for Millsaps College. That means that any prospective student, parent, alumni, or donor [knowing wink] will see this video at the top of any internet search for Millsaps.” Here’s that link again, Gentle Reader, in case you, like Curmie, hope he succeeds in his mission.
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