Karega Fired at Oberlin

The trustees of Oberlin College have dismissed Prof. Joy Karega, following an investigation of her anti-Semitic and other Facebook posts.  The trustees' statement is here, but it is not very informative.  Most interesting is the statement that Karega "attacked" the faculty members who raised the issue and "disclaimed all responsibility for her misconduct."

Somewhat more information was reported by the Oberlin Review, including the fact that the trustees' action was preceded by hearings before two faculty committees.  The committees were apparently unanimous in recommending discipline for Karega, but they were divided on severity -- some members voted for censure or suspension -- which suggests that Karega might have been able to save her job if she had been willing to apologize and retract her endorsement of anti-Jewish conspiracy theories.  For more details about Karega's Facebook posts -- which included stuff straight out of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion -- see here.

Karega has vowed litigation, claiming that her firing is attributable to race and gender discrimination.  It seems extremely unlikely that she will succeed, given that she was untenured at a private institution. She  has no First Amendment claim, and she cannot prove discrimination unless she can point to others who were treated differently at Oberlin.  Notably, the national BDS forces have not generally rallied to her cause, even though she couched her claims in anti-Zionism -- stating, example, that Israel was behind the Charlie Hebdo murders and the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight 17 over Ukraine.

The always indulgent John Wilson, editor of the AAUP's Academe blog, was critical of the firing, telling Inside Higher Ed that he was troubled by the trustees reference to Karega's attacks on other faculty:

“Faculty should be free to criticize their colleagues, especially when they are being attacked,” Wilson said. “If Karega’s offensive social media comments did not justify her dismissal -- as Oberlin's statement implicitly admits -- her defense of her offensive comments cannot become the legitimate basis for a firing.”

I think Wilson has seriously misapprehended the trustees' statement, which struck me as referring to Karega's justification for her comments and attempt to deflect blame to others.  It is also troubling that Wilson believes Karega was "being attacked," rather than investigated.  He is also wrong to claim that "her defense . . . cannot become the legitimate basis for firing."  It all depends on what she said in her defense, and how she said it.

The problem, however, is an information imbalance.  Karega is free to say whatever she wants about the process, while the trustees have apparently decided to limit themselves to a single announcement.  It would be useful to see the entire record of the investigation, which evidently included witness testimony and cross examination.  What precisely were the "attacks" that troubled the trustees?  How vigorously did Karega stand behind her expressions of anti-Semitism?  What did students and colleagues have to say about her teaching and statements on campus?  This will all come out in litigation if Karega follows through on her threat to file suit.

For the record, I am quite wary of imposing faculty discipline on the basis of extra-curricular social media posts, no matter how noxious.  Regarding Karega, a case can be made that the posts were related to her academic position.  She was a professor of "social justice writing," so expressions of bigotry would call into question her disciplinary competence.  This was surely addressed in the investigation and testimony, of which the details have yet to be made public. The trustees' statement referred to "inconsistencies in her description of the connection between her postings and her scholarship," so there is obviously more to the story.

For now, we can be pretty certain that Oberlin has not heard the end of Joy Karega, and the troubled campus will face more controversy in the spring.

NOTE: This post has been slightly edited for clarity.

Comments

[Captain Hruska Carswell, Continuance King]

Has anybody suggested late onset mental illness? A lot of educated otherwise stable professionals just kind of melt down. It's very similar to a person who was at the top of their game and then develops dementia. It's sad...I feel bad for her. I would guess that when she was hired, she was a top notch academic and connected with her students.