A tale of three professors, all women, all of Asian descent

benfell

See update for November 22, 2021, at end of post.

In the wake of Yale’s firing of Bandy Lee, a psychiatrist[1] who felt it her duty to warn of the danger that Donald Trump did indeed pose in multiple ways,[2] apparently at the behest of, of all people, Alan Dershowitz,[3] came news that Yale Law School had taken away a small group class from Amy Chua, who though popular with students, is also controversial, partly because of accusations leveled at her husband. The accusations against Chua largely smack of hearsay,[4] not the sort of evidence you’d expect a law school to admit.

Both professors are women of Asian descent and, on Twitter, both allege racism.

I am reminded of my own experience at California State University, East Bay. First, there was the professor whom I usually mean when I refer to a formerly favorite professor, who I think tends to overemphasize race in discussions of social inequality—it’s race, class, and gender,[5] and really, every way humans can come up with to distinguish among ourselves along group lines—and who alleged racism in university faculty hiring decisions. Notably, when my department was seeking a new chair, he observed that the three candidates they considered were all white men.

The one they hired turned the program in a hard, solipsistic post-modernist direction. It was a direction that I did not receive well and indeed this chair did not last long. I outlasted him and managed to finish my Master’s degree anyway.[6] But this brings up the tale of my other favorite professor, also a woman of Asian descent, and a situation which I must confess I did not handle as well as I wish, partly because I still had some learning to do.

This professor was also very popular among students, enthusiastic, and supportive. She had just won tenure when the new department chair arrived and was, I continue to believe, everything you want in a professor, particularly in a program that serves students from less-privileged backgrounds.

But the new department chair held quantitative research in disdain. And she was “quantitative girl.” She alleged sexual harassment, an accusation a department investigation failed to validate. But I know the accusation was at least partly true because the look I saw on her face coming out of her office one day matched my own feelings in the first Ph.D. program I was in, the program that was not right for me, when I found myself in conflict with that department chair and founder of the program.

Let’s be clear here: Academic politics are real, vicious, and petty.

At the time, I was about to take a class from the new department chair in my Master’s program and I promised her I would watch for signs of sexism.

I didn’t see them and I told her so, but I noted that there was something odd, something I couldn’t put my finger on, with his emphasis on “theory.” She heard the first part, I think, louder the second.

But I was on to something. I had not yet read Jack Holland’s Misogyny, where he explains that Plato associated ideas—theory—with air and masculinity, sensuality with earth and femininity; he (Plato) exalted the former, and disdained the latter.[7] I would see this again in Richard Tarnas’ The Passion of the Western Mind[8] and eventually connect it with a conservative emphasis on the way they think things ought to be, at the expense of how things are, the naturalistic fallacy.[9] That department chair was actually a conservative, masquerading as a liberal as in the sort not quite so far to the right as right wingnuts, who disguised his sexism with an equal opportunity patronizing attitude and intellectual bullying.[10]

He called himself a “human scientist,” but I’m now the real thing.

Let’s also be clear here: Social inequality in academia is very, very, very real. And it goes well beyond the hierarchies of elite and non-elite universities, degrees, tenure status and the absence thereof, and administration versus faculty versus students.

Do I think my other favorite professor was harassed? Hell, yes. I know this now both from that look on her face and my own learning since.

And do I accordingly suspect Yale’s motivations in disciplining Bandy Lee and Amy Chua? Hell, yes.

Update, November 22, 2021: Quoting Len Gutkin at length from a Chronicle of Higher Education newsletter,

The recent confrontation between Trent Colbert, a second-year Yale Law student who was accused of racism for using the phrase “trap house” in an invitation to a party, and two YLS administrators — Yaseen Eldik, director of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and Associate Dean Ellen Cosgrove — appears to have spurred a larger reckoning at the law school with the problem of administrative coercion and even dishonesty. As David Lat describes on his blog, two students have since filed a lawsuit against Eldik and Cosgrove over what they say was their mistreatment during last spring’s investigation of the law professor Amy Chua for allegedly holding boozy parties for select students despite Covid restrictions. (Those charges didn’t entirely pan out.)

According to the plaintiffs, the diversity director and the associate dean pressured them to make false statements against Chua, and retaliated when they refused. Eldik and Cosgrove, they allege, “worked together in an attempt to blackball two students of color from job opportunities as retaliation for refusing to lie to support the University’s investigation into a professor of color.”

Yale, of course, denies all wrongdoing. But Dean Heather Gerken released a statement last week apologizing for “things the Law School administration should have done differently.” (Aaron Sibarium at The Washington Free Beacon broke the story.) The reference is to the Colbert affair, not the Chua one, though the cases are connected via Eldik and Cosgrove. Will heads roll? “Deputy Dean Ian Ayres,” Gerken wrote, “shared with me … personnel matters, which I will not discuss in a community-wide email.”[11]

David Lat describes the lawsuit thus:

Let’s start with the lawsuit. Yesterday two students, proceeding under pseudonyms (“Jane Doe” and “John Doe”), filed a lawsuit in federal court in Connecticut against Yale Law School, Dean Heather Gerken, associate dean Ellen Cosgrove, and diversity director Yaseen Eldik. The plaintiffs allege that the defendants “worked together in an attempt to blackball two students of color from job opportunities as retaliation for refusing to lie to support the University’s investigation into a professor of color.”

What investigation, and which professor? Yes, you guessed it—the Dinner Party-gate investigation against Professor Amy Chua, in which she was (falsely) accused of hosting drunken dinner parties attended by YLS students and federal judges.[12]

In their 20-page complaint, the plaintiffs allege retaliation, tortious business interference, and defamation. These claims arise under Connecticut state law rather than federal law, but because the plaintiffs seek compensatory damages of at least $75,000 and punitive damages of at least $75,000, they can sue in federal court. They’re represented by John Balestriere and Matthew Schmidt of Balestriere Fariello, a high-profile New York litigation boutique, and Andrew Bowman of Westport, Connecticut. [UPDATE (11:22 p.m.): Corrected to fix Matt Schmidt’s last name.][13]

At this point, we can safely say that the allegations against Amy Chua have devolved into a complete shitshow. That doesn’t really exonerate her, but the assumption for the moment has to be that these allegations were unfounded or so weakly founded that should never have been made in the first place.

I am thinking about all this in the context of Len Gutkin’s leading topic in his newsletter,[14] the University of Austin,[15] which appears to be a capitalist libertarian counter[16] to a very real problem with diminishing academic freedom.[17] Geoff Shullenberger’s ‘defense’—some might call it damnation by faint praise—of the University is that in seeking accreditation, it will likely confront the same difficulties as the institutions it seeks to supplant.[18] It’s a profoundly misguided effort anyway,[19] certainly unlikely to resolve questions of academic freedom or institutional racism.

  1. [1]Len Gutkin, “Shared Psychosis; Academic Psychiatry; Academic Freedom,” Chronicle of Higher Education, April 5, 2021, https://www.chronicle.com/newsletter/chronicle-review/2021-04-05↩
  2. [2]David Benfell, “Riot or insurrection? Lies or madness?” Not Housebroken, January 22, 2021, https://disunitedstates.org/2021/01/12/riot-or-insurrection-lies-or-madness/; David Benfell, “In service to a psychotic delusional raging narcissist,” Not Housebroken, April 5, 2021, https://disunitedstates.org/2021/04/05/in-service-to-a-psychotic-delusional-raging-narcissist/↩
  3. [3]Len Gutkin, “Shared Psychosis; Academic Psychiatry; Academic Freedom,” Chronicle of Higher Education, April 5, 2021, https://www.chronicle.com/newsletter/chronicle-review/2021-04-05↩
  4. [4]Tom Bartlett, “A Yale Law Prof Was Disciplined for Holding Dinner Parties. There’s More to the Story,” Chronicle of Higher Education, April 22, 2021, https://www.chronicle.com/article/a-yale-law-prof-was-disciplined-for-holding-dinner-parties-theres-more-to-the-story↩
  5. [5]Scott Sernau, Worlds Apart, 2nd ed. (Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge, 2006).↩
  6. [6]David Benfell, “Coalescing thoughts while waiting for a phone call,” Not Housebroken, February 21, 2009, https://disunitedstates.org/2009/02/21/coalescing-thoughts-while-waiting-for-a-phone-call/↩
  7. [7]Jack Holland, Misogyny (New York: Carroll and Graf, 2006).↩
  8. [8]Richard Tarnas, The Passion of the Western Mind (New York: Harmony, 1991).↩
  9. [9]David Benfell, “Conservative Views on Undocumented Migration” (doctoral dissertation, Saybrook, 2016). ProQuest (1765416126).↩
  10. [10]David Benfell, “Coalescing thoughts while waiting for a phone call,” Not Housebroken, February 21, 2009, https://disunitedstates.org/2009/02/21/coalescing-thoughts-while-waiting-for-a-phone-call/↩
  11. [11]Len Gutkin to Review list, “Grifters and Guilds; Yale Law’s Coercive Admins,” Chronicle of Higher Education, November 22, 2021, https://www.chronicle.com/account/newsletters↩
  12. [12]Under normal circumstances, there’s no problem with professors hosting dinner parties with students. But as followers of this story will recall, Chua wasn’t supposed to be having parties because it would (a) violate Yale’s Covid-19 protocols and (b) break a commitment that Chua made to YLS in 2019 “not to invite students to my home or out to drinks for the foreseeable future,” as part of a resolution of allegations that Chua engaged in “excessive drinking” with students and made inappropriate comments. (Chua and Gerken disagreed over the meaning of “the foreseeable future,” which shows the importance of drafting clear contracts.)↩
  13. [13]David Lat, “Doe v. Gerken: A Lawsuit Against Yale Law,” Original Jurisdiction, November 16, 2021, https://davidlat.substack.com/p/doe-v-dean-heather-gerken↩
  14. [14]Len Gutkin to Review list, “Grifters and Guilds; Yale Law’s Coercive Admins,” Chronicle of Higher Education, November 22, 2021, https://www.chronicle.com/account/newsletters↩
  15. [15]Anemona Hartocollis, “They Say Colleges Are Censorious. So They Are Starting a New One,” New York Times, November 8, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/08/us/ut-austin-free-speech.html; Sarah Jones, “Who’s Afraid of Higher Education?” New York, November 8, 2021, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/bari-weiss-university-of-austin-nothing-new.html; Katherine Mangan, “A Planned University ‘Dedicated to Truth’ Will Welcome ‘Witches Who Refuse to Burn,’” Chronicle of Higher Education, November 8, 2021, https://www.chronicle.com/article/a-planned-university-dedicated-to-truth-will-welcome-witches-who-refuse-to-burn; Tina Nguyen, “Is Bari Weiss U. For Real?” Puck News, November 15, 2021, https://puck.news/is-bari-weiss-u-for-real/; Theodore Schleifer, “Who’s Funding Bari Weiss?” Puck News, November 12, 2021, https://puck.news/bari-weiss-tim-draper-vance-masters-thiel/; Geoff Shullenberger, “The Guild and the Grifters,” Chronicle of Higher Education, November 18, 2021, https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-guild-and-the-grifters↩
  16. [16]David Benfell, “The inexcusable, insufferable idiots coming to Austin,” Not Housebroken, November 15, 2021, https://disunitedstates.org/2021/11/09/the-inexcusable-insufferable-idiots-coming-to-austin/↩
  17. [17]David Benfell, “The death of academic freedom,” Not Housebroken, November 9, 2021, https://disunitedstates.org/2021/11/08/the-death-of-academic-freedom/↩
  18. [18]Geoff Shullenberger, “The Guild and the Grifters,” Chronicle of Higher Education, November 18, 2021, https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-guild-and-the-grifters↩
  19. [19]David Benfell, “The inexcusable, insufferable idiots coming to Austin,” Not Housebroken, November 15, 2021, https://disunitedstates.org/2021/11/09/the-inexcusable-insufferable-idiots-coming-to-austin/↩

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