Montana prof suspended after ant-war lecture...doing it right !!!!

[MORTARDUDE]

http://missoulian.com/articles/2003/...l/news02.txtUM adjunct suspended after war talk
By BETSY COHEN of the Missoulian


Dennis Holt, a University of Montana linguistics professor, wheels boxes of his belongings out of the Linguistics Building on campus Monday after he was suspended with pay for student complaints about his behavior. Holt allegedly made his students uncomfortable during what was described as erratic and bizarre behavior while sharing his anti-war sentiments in class shortly after the war in Iraq started.
Photo by TOM BAUER/Missoulian

A University of Montana linguistics professor was suspended Monday for allegedly making his students uncomfortable by sharing his emotional, often rambling anti-war sentiments in class shortly after the war in Iraq began.

On Monday, the first day of class after UM's spring break, adjunct assistant professor Dennis Holt,

60, was met with a letter informing him that he was being suspended for the semester with pay by Tom Storch, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.




According to Holt, Storch said students informed him that during the March 21 class they were afraid of Holt's behavior, which they described as erratic, bizarre and crazylike, and prompted someone to alert campus security.

Storch also informed Holt that over spring break, students and parents of students in the class called to complain about his behavior. To alleviate and amend the situation, Storch told Holt the best solution was to suspend him.

Because the matter is a personnel issue, Storch said Monday he could not elaborate on the incident.

Storch did say the suspension was in response to the input he received from parents and students in the class, which was a lower-division introductory linguistics class of 40 students.

"The main reason is that I have a responsibility to do the things that are in the best interest of the students, and this was a decision that was made in the best interest of the students," Storch said.

Contrary to rumors that quickly spread throughout campus and the Missoula community, Holt's suspension was not because he shared anti-war sentiments, Storch said.

Calling the rumors "absolutely false," Storch said: "The suspension has nothing to do with what he may have said about the war. This is not a freedom of speech issue."

Storch also said his decision was not abrupt or made without asking Holt for his side of the story. He said he spoke with Holt the day of the incident.

Holt said he chose that day to air his views because it was the first time class was held after the war started, and he began the discussion with background about himself.

He told students that he once was a member of the free speech movement in Berkeley, Calif., in the early 1960s, who protested the Vietnam War by holding sit-ins and other peace protests; that he was a former Peace Corps volunteer; and that he once produced a revolutionary newsletter calling for the removal of government.

He expressed to the class that he was deeply disturbed that the war in Iraq had begun, and he drew on poetry, languages, metaphor and mythology to express his angst.

Holt said he explained that he felt the United States had been stolen by people who have their hands at the controls of government and who have gotten into power illegally. He told the class he feels something has gone seriously wrong with this country since 2000 and not enough people are talking about it. What this country needs, he said, is a peaceful takeover of the government.

Because many young people don't have much knowledge about civil disobedience in the United States and don't have experience living in a politically divided country at war, it's no surprise that some students were unsettled by his lecture, Holt said.

"I'm sure some of it seemed kind of crazy," he said.

After class, some students went immediately to Storch's office to complain, prompting Storch to send people to observe Holt's behavior in his other classes that day. They saw nothing out of the ordinary.

Laughing, Holt said people acted like he had gone mad.

Holt said he is not surprised by his suspension. To him, it's just representative of a larger agenda at work in an unsettled world.

"Over the length of my life," he said, "I have become notorious for making waves."

Storch said the four courses Holt teaches will be taught by other faculty members.

Reporter Betsy Cohen can be reached at 523-5253 or at bcohen@missoulian.com