6/7/2012: From InsideHigherEd:
… The group has asked the dean and other top officials at the university’s school of medicine to write letters of apology to the professor, admit to errors of judgment, stop proposed disciplinary actions against him and take steps to prevent future violations of academic freedom. This week, representatives of the university’s Academic Senate are expected to vote on similar resolutions against the administrators.
The investigation came about after Wilkes filed a written complaint to the committee in late 2010, alleging that there had been a “blatant breach of my academic freedom.” The fracas started after Wilkes, an expert on prostate cancer, co-wrote the op-ed (along with a University of Southern California professor) questioning the efficacy of the prostate-specific antigen screening test, often referred to as the PSA, only days after some faculty members at the school were part of an event that promoted the test, according to documents. The other groups associated with the event were the American Urological Association Foundation and the National Football League.
And you thought Johnson Hall had some control issues.
A great example of how tenure and shared governance are essential to academic freedom. I mean, who defended this guy? A committee whose members’ tenure gave them the security to stand up to their administration, and empowered by UC’s shared governance system to actually do something about it.