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Thursday, October 25, 2012

Jury Splits in Conservative Faculty Candidate's Hiring Bias Suit Against Iowa Law School

Wagner 2A federal jury rejected Teresa Wagner's First Amendment claim that the University of Iowa College of Law denied her a faculty position due to her conservative politics, but deadlocked over her Equal Protection claim that she was passed over in favor of less qualified candidates. The U.S. Magistrate Judge declared a mistrial on the 14th Amendment claim.

(Hat Tip: Dorothy Brown.)  Prior TaxProf Blog coverage:

https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2012/10/jury-splits-.html

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In a progressive (properly defined) movement at another college:

Conservatives at Whitman College Seek Political Diversity

“A lot of what I’m trying to do with the Campus Conservatives Club is to create a place for people with ideas that aren’t the standard liberal ideas at Whitman,” said Calloway-Nation. “I’ve tried to create a safe place where people can come and express their ideas and share dialogues with other people and spread the word around Whitman that there are other people with varying viewpoints.”

Though Whitman emphasizes diversity and openness, many students like Calloway-Nation are surprised that those themes don’t carry over to political views.

"I have some friends who are afraid to come to club meetings because they don’t want people to know who they are and that they have conservative views,” she said. “When I was looking at Whitman, I was thinking about the great education I would receive, and didn’t consider the political dynamic on campus. I learned [about] that last year in my dorm having discussions with people who weren’t very tolerant of conservative views.”

Posted by: Woody | Oct 27, 2012 7:59:32 AM

Hey, Bill, how do you like your UNC speech police going so far that they dropped the classification of "freshman?" It's a left-wing conspiracy, I tell ya'.

UNC Drops the Word “Freshmen” Because it’s not Gender Inclusive

Apparently, you can’t use a word like that because it only mentions fresh men and not every other gender specific term currently available in the English language
.

Posted by: Woody | Oct 27, 2012 7:50:55 AM

Nah, Anonymous, all those fields are so gay.

Bill T., yeah, more than half of Iowa, which makes up the jury pool, is liberal, and the judge (likely liberal) was in error; but, this matter wouldn't have turned into a lawsuit if the liberal activist professors at the college had been honest and tolerant of diversity of thought.

Posted by: Woody | Oct 27, 2012 6:22:52 AM

They must have a lotta liberals in the jury pool in Iowa. I tell ya folks, it is a vast left wing conspiracy.

Posted by: Bill Turnier | Oct 26, 2012 1:12:56 PM

I'm sure its liberal bias that has kept Woody from pursuing his dream of a career in fashion, Hollywood, television, or academia.

Posted by: Anonymous | Oct 26, 2012 9:46:51 AM

Why, this is so confusing about professors becoming more liberal. What to make of it?? These things just happened. Had nothing to do with bias. (Sarcasm)

"Inside Higher Ed" -- Moving Further to the Left
Survey finds professors, already liberal, have moved further left.

Academics, on average, lean to the left. A survey being released today suggests that they are moving even more in that direction. Among full-time faculty members at four-year colleges and universities, the percentage identifying as "far left" or liberal has increased notably in the last three years, while the percentage identifying in three other political categories has declined.

In the 1998-9 survey, more than 35 percent of faculty members identified themselves as middle of the road, and less than half (47.5 percent) identified as liberal or far left. In the new data, 62.7 percent identify as liberal or far left. ...

So what do these data mean?

Sylvia Hurtado, professor of education at UCLA and director of the Higher Education Research Institute, said that she didn't know what to make of the surge to the left by faculty members.

Neil Gross, a professor of sociology at the University of British Columbia, has written extensively on faculty political issues. ... He said that he couldn't be sure why more professors were identifying as far left.


Posted by: Woody | Oct 25, 2012 4:10:26 PM

What a crock, defended by lying university officials guilty of a cover up. Liberals attack and blacklist conservatives everywhere they can, for examples, in news journalism, television and Hollywood, fashion, and, yes, even universities -- wherever liberals gain control. Where liberals don't have control, they attack, just like they did with Chick-fil-A, the Boy Scouts, etc. And, if you're a black conservative, of all things, heaven help you -- but the Left will never admit it. There's always lies, which include "other reasons."

The National Law Journal: Confused outcome for conservative who accused Iowa Law of discrimination

As the matter stands, the case may be retried only on the second count, but Wagner's attorney, Stephen Fieweger, has asked Shields to vacate the verdict in favor of Jones on the First Amendment count. He argued that Shields asked jurors whether they had reached agreement only after announcing that he was declaring a mistrial.

"It's very bizarre," Fieweger said. "How can you accept a verdict after you declared a mistrial?" ....

It appeared the jury struggled to decide whether Wagner's conservative political activism played a part in her inability to secure a full-time teaching position at the law school Her complaint alleges the faculty comprised more than 90 percent registered Democrats.


Posted by: Woody | Oct 25, 2012 3:52:56 PM