Boise State University professor could be named Professor of the Year — in 1910
I am a professor at Boise State University, and nine years ago, I wrote a piece for the New York Times titled, “Men Who Needs Them?” There were calls for my termination, hate mail from men’s groups, and some very pained emails detailing perceived injustices suffered through the family courts. I was not fired.
When I wrote another piece for that paper, “When May I Shoot a Student?” regarding concealed carry on campus, I was again the subject of a great deal of scorn, listed as Idaho’s only representative on the bizarre Professor Watchlist. I took a lot of heat, but I wasn’t fired or injured.
My grandfather was a professor in the Soviet Union who died in the Gulag for his opinions. As a Constitution-loving American, I take freedom of expression very seriously but understand its limits. Controversial satire is permissible. Arguing that gender determines individual student success is not.
However, this year the rules seemed to change. The atmosphere of free speech on campus suffered a dramatic shift when a rumor surfaced that a white student was offended in one section of the required University Foundations 200 course. As a result, all 55 sections were shut down immediately for 1,300 students. The university hired a law firm to investigate the alleged anti-white classroom, and the lieutenant governor convened a special task force to investigate indoctrination on campus. Boise State political science professor Scott Yenor was a member of that unusual investigative committee.
I was not familiar with professor Yenor’s opinions until last week. He is getting a lot of attention for his recent speech at the National Conservatism Conference, espousing cringe-worthy misogynistic anachronisms, with such gems as: “The feminist ethic of careerism and easy sex is a recipe for national disaster…Our independent women seek their purpose in life in mid-level jobs like human resource management, environmental protection and marketing. They are more medicated, meddlesome and quarrelsome than women need to be.”
Given what happened in the Foundations 200 course, I expected a swift response from the administration. But initially there was just an email sent through the marketing department touting how much BSU appreciates its female staff and students. No reason was given for the sudden moment of appreciation, which was sent just before the news of Yenor’s comments broke nationally. A later statement from the university appears to defend his statements as permissible free speech. However, the Idaho Statesman and many female students on social media are demanding firm university action.
The lopsided responses to Yenor’s speech vs. the earlier Foundations 200 rumor might reflect a sudden new appreciation for due process, but I hope the university soon does more than issue platitudes to women. Like most universities for last several decades, the majority of our students are now women. The percentage of female graduates is still growing, and the achievements of women are even more remarkable when you consider that nothing has changed biologically, women are still the only ones who can incubate, birth and breastfeed a child.
For men, the changes in society have been tough. Men die four years earlier than women, commit suicide at 3.5 times the female rate, are two-thirds of the opiate deaths, 10 times more likely to be in prison, and men are shrinking in terms of the percentage of college degrees from associates to doctorates. This should be a serious national policy concern. Instead, we have the predictable backlash against female achievement with bacon-wrapped misogyny disguised as conservatism. This pandering to male frustration is probably great for book sales but has no place in public education.
A central and continuing job requirement for professors is the ability to treat all students equally and to invest in their potential without regard to gender. I firmly believe that professor Yenor could do this — at an all-male institution, especially one in a country that restricts the employment of women.
Given his familiarity with the customs and language, he would be especially suitable for employment at any of the Ivy League schools — of 1910.
Greg Hampikian is professor of biology and criminal justice, director of the Boise State Wastewater Virus Lab, director of the Forensic Justice Project and co-director of the Idaho Innocence Project at Boise State University.
