>>I sort of did what Chuck fantasizes -- but then I was conducting my
>>political education in public, which is not always a pretty sight. But
>>fortunately, I had achieved tenure just before things started to get
>>rough, and even more fortunately, the year the shit really hit the fan
>>happened to be the year there was an _acting_ president who
>>(astoundingly) really believed in academic freedom and proper procedure,
>>so I sneaked through, but for the next 17 years my position was one I
>>facetiously but accurately described as that of a "tenured temp."
>>
>>Justin is essentially correct.
>>
Yup. At my first and only gig as a tenure-track prof. I came under deep
suspicion for starting up a discussion group about Wittgenstein's
"Philosophical Investigations." Why? they asked, "what's she up t?"
Intellectual curiosity was simply not an acceptable motive.
Also, they put me on the committe to define plagiarism and I argued that we would be much more effective if we taught the students to plagiarize in the legally accepted way since, after all, most of professional writing is artful plagiarism. They looked at me like I had two heads.
So, really, the gig is up long before you start talking politics.
Joanna