Maybe the Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law Center has decided it needs to nip in the bud what otherwise could turn into an epidemic of Trump Derangement Syndrome, by taking action that increases the integrity of higher education in Louisiana and citizens’ confidence in it.
Last year, a professor at LSU Law named Nicholas Bryner encountered some minor trouble when he insulted and demeaned students who supported Republican Pres. Donald Trump. Student recordings of the remarks came to the attention of GOP Gov. Jeff Landry who sent notes including to the law school administration that this conduct merited investigation. Whether that happened is not public, but the boorish and unprofessional behavior displayed by Bryner was, and with a little counseling plus the public outing bringing him deserved ridicule constituted acceptable punishment.
Now, apparently on the first day of class this semester, another law school instructor went much further. Law school administrators suspended for the semester Prof. Ken Levy for remarks made in that class, apparently caught by student recordings to which a media outlet gained access. Although administrators haven’t yet responded to requests for an explanation, perhaps because Levy has engaged counsel to fight that, a review of the media-obtained transcript gives readers a pretty good indication why a suspension not only was proper but also obligatory.
In essence, Levy levied two very serious threats against a subset of and all students. In a rambling, stream-of-consciousness, disorganized monologue that consumed the entire period, early in that Levy felt compelled to reveal to the class his biases and what he thought of students who felt contrary to these:
… you probably heard I’m a big lefty, okay? I’m a big Democrat … I was devastated by [Trump’s win]. I don’t need his political commentary. No, you need my political commentary. And you, above all others, need my political, political commentary.
Given that previously he had made comments about how their studies would involve almost exclusively U.S. Supreme Court decisions that decided by a body he said was political, and he later would bring up that normative argumentation in test answers he preferred as a law student, together these statements give every reason to alarm conservatives/Trump supporters in the class that they would be graded (apparently, everything rode on one final exam) unfairly unless they hewed to what lay behind his “political commentary.”
That attitude is unconscionable in a collegiate instructor, although perhaps as he doesn’t seem to put much emphasis on clarity and organization in his lecturing it’s possible it wasn’t his intent to convey this, at least not openly. But prior to this segment, other remarks on classroom comportment sent an absolutely intimidating message to everyone in the class regardless of their political preferences:
You cannot record this class. Some of you may have heard that one of my colleagues [Bryner] is now in the new, the national news …. Now, he was recording that class. It was Zoom or something. And they forwarded this to the governor. I frankly, like, forward my [redacted] to the governor. Like, I generally don’t have a problem. I would love to become a national celeb. Celebrities based on what I said in class. Like, the governor that goes to the governor, and he’s like, he’s politically correct. And I’m like, that was a politically correct, I said you. That’s not. But taken out of context, I might seem like a bit of an [?]. So, you’re not allowed to record me. And you’re certainly not, if you’re secretly recording me and it’s helping you, God bless you. You’re not allowed to do that, but you may not forward it to anybody …
So far, hubristic, narcissistic, but nothing untoward. Traditionally in academia, institutions have carried decentralized procedures regarding whether recordings may be made in classes, typically leaving it to the instructor to decide whether permitted on the grounds the lecturer could use the material for monetary gain, although that may be overridden if recording is necessary as a disability accommodation. I suspect LSU Law has just such a policy. But what came next is something that could cost Levy his job:
… If you do, I can put you in jail. I mean, I have the authority. You’re in trouble ….
Like with Bryner, you can insult and belittle your students but get warned and be on your way. But you cannot terrorize them and not expect consequences. Especially when what he said was so patently false. Institutions have procedures in place for when their codes of conduct are breached, but the most they can do is expel you. If the alleged act also is criminal the institution can report it to the authorities (and, actually, must in some cases), but a single university employee cannot unilaterally have you arrested and thrown into the clink for violating a class policy.
Now, maybe he was trying to be funny. If so, it was extremely poor judgment in a classroom environment to joke in that fashion, which itself is a lapse administrators cannot overlook.
So, Levy apparently signaled he would grade with political bias as a component and threatened with incarceration students who recorded his lectures. Whether he genuinely meant both, it certainly came across that way, and regardless should draw at the very least a suspension.
There is much more to this, such as the exact nature of LSU policies and procedures for personnel matters and whether these were followed appropriately in determining whether his punishment was legal. And, as in the case of Bryner, while discouraging that Louisiana taxpayers and tuition-payers have to put up with such unacceptable and unprofessional behavior that detracts from a true educational mission, it’s encouraging that students stood up to this to hold people and institutions accountable when these parties don’t hold up their end of the educational bargain.
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