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By Scott Tibbs, October 04, 2003
----Original Message Follows----
From: Scott Tibbs <tibbs1973@yahoo.com>
To: sbrehm@indiana.edu
Subject: RE: Professor Eric Rasmusen's Web log
Date: Sat, 4 Oct 2003 16:25:56 -0700 (PDT)
Ms. Brehm:
I understand you are a very busy individual and do not have time to respond to each and every one of the many electronic mails you must receive. I thank you for taking the time to respond to mine. However, in your response to my open letter to you, you did not address any of the points I made or concerns I raised. Instead, you pointed me to your statement to the Bloomington Faculty Council. Your statement does not raise any new information that was not raised in the Herald-Times or Indiana Daily Student articles on the matter.
My concerns remain. While I fully support your right to speak as a private citizen, I am not sure that it is appropriate for you to use your position as Chancellor to publicly denounce an IU professor. I am concerned that we are placing sexual morality into the same category as immutable characteristics such as race, gender, or national origin. But I am mostly concerned that the University's rush to condemn Professor Rasmusen freezes out socially conservative students and tells them that their views are not welcome at this University.
As you know, Universities tend to be a bastion for "liberal", Leftist, or "progressive" ideology. In fact, David Horowitz is promoting something called the "academic bill of rights", which would prohibit political considerations from being used in hiring and firing of university professors. I would hope that such an enthusiastic rush to denounce IU professors' conservative views on sexual morality is not an indication such legislation is needed in Indiana.
Note: My response to you is an "open letter" for public consumption. In case this was not made clear before, I consider your responses to be public information as well, since you are a public official, specifically the Chancellor of a state-funded university.
Scott Tibbs
1998 Indiana University Alumnus
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