de-tenuring of Mary Daly (fwd)

[Beth Goldstein <bg28@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

fyi folks

beth


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 02 Aug 1999 06:10:53 -0400
From: Wendy Lee-Lampshire <lamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: Society for Women in Philosophy Information and Discussion List
     <SWIP-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: SWIP-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: de-tenuring of Mary Daly (fwd)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 31 Jul 1999 17:32:31 -0500
Date:    Fri, 30 Jul 1999 19:03:18 -0500
From:    "Paula C. Barnes" <drbarnes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Action needed: the de-tenuring of Mary Daly


To anyone interested in feminism, women's studies, and/or academic freedom:

Mary Daly, pioneering feminist theorist and theologian and author of the
groundbreaking book _Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism_, has,
in effect, been "de-tenured" at Boston College.  According to an editorial
in the most recent issue of The Nation ( Laura Flanders, "Feminist
De-tenured," July 26/August 6, 1999 issue, pp. 5-6), Daly has been teaching
a course at BC, Introduction to Feminist Ethics, for the past 25 years to
women only, in order to promote a safe space to discuss such issues as
violence against women.  A male student who wished to register for the
course and who ignored Daly's offer to teach him outside the women's class
(something she has done for the past dozen years) threatened, with the
backing of the Center for Individual Rights, an organization that led
attacks on affirmative action at the universities of Texas and Michigan, to
sue BC under Title IX antidiscrimination provisions.

The intimidation worked and BC canceled Daly's courses for the upcoming
academic year.  BC claims that Daly resigned voluntarily, a claim she
denies, and is no longer a faculty member.  They have also denied her access
to the university's grievance procedure.  Daly is fighting Boston College's
actions and has filed complaints of breach-of-contract and violation of
tenure rights.

Daly is a scholar who put feminist theology and feminist ethics on the
academic and political map and deserves the support of all who care about
women's studies in the academy, about academic freedom, and about protecting
the real purposes of Title IX.

The Mary Daly Defense Fund can be reached at:
P.O. Box 381176
Cambridge, MA 02238-1176
mdalyfund@xxxxxxx

Letters to Boston College in defense of Mary Daly can be sent to:
Pres. William P. Leahy, SJ
Boston College
Botolph House
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467-3934

If you do write a letter, please forward a copy to the Defense Fund as well.
Please pass this message on to others.


Jane Rothstein,
Ph.D. Candidate
Department of History and
Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies
New York University
jr231@xxxxxxxxxxx