[Marxism] Fw: Iowa sociologist fired for labor/abortion comments

[Matías Scaglione <mdscaglione@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Steven Colatrella [mailto:stevencolatrella@xxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Monday, May 17, 2004 1:34 AM
To: eirosen@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: anderson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; wgoldste@xxxxxxxxxxxx; emerald@xxxxxx; 
jhalley@xxxxxxxx
Subject: Iowa sociologist fired for labor/abortion comments
 

Dear Prof. Rosen and fellow marxist sociologists, 

 

Pardon my sending you this, but I have been unable to access the progressive 
sociologists email list. I would like this announcement circulated to the 
marxist section of ASA of which I am a member (both the section and ASA as a 
whole of course). Thanks:

 

I am an ASA member in the process of being fired for reasons made clear below. 
Briefly summarized: a comment I made about abortion from a pro-choice viewpoint 
at a Catholic college, Mount Mercy in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and a comment I made 
in the course of negotiations with the administration over faculty manual 
revisions and in defense of tenure rights. 

 

1) Please send a statement of concern by email or letter to the Dean of the 
College, Susan Pauly, at spauly@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx, or Susan Pauly, Dean, Mount 
Mercy College, 1330 Elmhurst Drive, NE, Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52402;

 

2) send this summary over whatever email membership list exists on academic 
freedom or academic and professional issues so that members may add their names 
to the statements of support in my case. 

 

Below is a fuller description of the facts in my case and my biographical info 
as sent in a statement to the ACLU.

 

I ask the ASA and its members to cc any emails to me at 
stevencolatrella@xxxxxxxxxxx that I may be able to accurately describe the 
level of support to the press and others. I can also be reached at home at 
319-366-1078 or on Monday of this week only at the office at 319-363-1323 
ext.1278. 

 

I look forward to speaking with you about this issue.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Dr. Steven Colatrella

Acting President, Iowa Sociological Association

Assistant Professor of Sociology

Mount Mercy College

 

 

Lorraine Kenny

Reproductive Freedom Project

ACLU

 

Dear Ms. Kenny, 

 

Thank you for your time on Friday. I am an ACLU member in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I 
am being fired over free speech issues: some related to workplace rights, 
others on reproductive rights. I am asking the ACLU for any support possible: 
while I have a lawyer, it is mainly public pressure on the administration that 
I am seeking. I believe that this is both effective in this case of a small, 
narrow-minded administration unused and uncomfortable with controversy, and 
principled: it should not off-limits to speak about abortion at a Catholic 
college, and no one should be fired or silenced for doing so.

 

I am aware that not all free speech laws apply to private, 
religiously-affiliated colleges, but most of these exceptions seem to apply to 
comments made to students, whereas my comments were made at a faculty/staff 
only meeting. In any case, free speech has a history of expansion into new 
areas previously closed off and needs only someone willing to make a sacrifice. 
I am perfectly willing to become the poster child for free speech rights over 
reproductive rights at Catholic colleges. Losing a job is a small price to pay. 
Ultimately I do not want to stay at this place, but any settlement that comes 
out of my campaign will have to include a statement from the President and Dean 
that they will protect free speech rights, and in particular allow the widest 
possible expression of views on birth control, abortion and reproductive 
rights. If we obtain that, we will have cracked the Berlin Wall of free speech 
on abortion at Catholic institutions. Will the ACLU help me?

 

I have forwarded to you several emails that are merely a sample of what has 
come into the Dean, Susan Pauly, from around the world. I have not done this to 
pressure you or to ruin your day. Rather I wanted to give the ACLU a sense of 
the growing support for my case in many circles. 

 

A final word about my background: 

 

A bit more bio information on me if it helps: I am the author of "Workers of 
the World: African and Asian Migrants in Italy in the 1990s" (Africa World 
Press Trenton and Asmara: 2001). I was  Fulbright Scholar in 1997, and have 
taught at Bard College, at the American University of Rome, the New School 
University, Montclair State University, Loyola University's Rome, Italy center. 
I am currently Assistant Professor Sociology at Mount Mercy College in Cedar 
Rapids, Iowa and for the 2003-2004 academic year I am the current President of 
the Iowa Sociological Association. I have worked on the editorial boards of 
Midnight Notes and Altreragioni, the latter journal based in Italy. My Ph.D. is 
in Sociology from Binghamton University, SUNY, from 1998. I am a former 
organizer with two unions, the International Ladies Garment Workers Union and 
the Committee of Interns and Residents, and the former national Student 
Organizer for the National Lawyers Guild, and worked for four years for the 
late Edith Tiger at the National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee, now part 
of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

 

I can be reached in the office on Monday: 319-363-1323 ext.1278, and at home 
the rest of the week, where I will be grading tests: 319-366-1078. I look 
forward to speaking with you.

 

 

 

Please circulate this to anyone sympathetic. From Steven Colatrella:

 

I will be notified officially in June that I am going to be fired from Mount 
Mercy college. Below are the reasons as listed by the Dean of the College in a 
conversation with my department chair of Sociology, Prof. Mohammad Chaichian. 
Neither involves teaching or anything academic. One is a possible unfair labor 
practice since it involves comments I made during negotiations over working 
conditions while on an official faculty body for that purpose, the other is a 
free speech issue involving a comment I made in support of legalized abortion.  
I spoke to the Dean today who confirmed that she is meeting with my dept. chair 
in June to begin the process of firing me. Now is a good time to send emails or 
phone calls to try to forestall the action before it is taken, or at least to 
indicate that it will be a costly decision for the college's reputation. 

 

I am asking my friends to send emails to protest or express concern at my 
impending firing. 

Emails can be sent to the Dean of the College, Susan Pauly, at 
spauly@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

Emails can mention that only two were comments made by the Dean Pauly, to the 
chair of Sociology, Prof. Mohammad Chaichian (who has supported me) as to why I 
will not be renewed after next year: 

 

1) a comment I made that the "college is going in the wrong direction" in 
reference to the unilaterally rewritten new faculty manual presented by the 
administration that allows tenured faculty to be fired at the whim of the 
administration (for "unsatisfactory performance" - left undefined), allows the 
Dean to force faculty to teach additional courses if they have low enrollement 
(left undefined) and allows the President (who has the final say now on all 
grievances even ones brought against himself) to eliminate whole departments 
for budgetary purposes unilaterally. The comments were made as part of 
negotiations over this manual revision while I was on an elected body, the 
Faculty Welfare Committee, whose task is to negotiate working conditions with 
the administration.

 

2) a comment I made at a faculty/staff meeting in reference to a survey 
conducted by administrators of our students, showing that only 25% of female 
students (who are 80% of the student body) support keeping abortion legal - 
half the students surveyed were nursing majors, our biggest major. I said "That 
we are sending out a lot of students who will work in the medical profession 
and are a priori opposed to a medical procedure that in many cases is a matter 
of life and death for women raises a grave ethical concern". I said nothing 
else on the matter. Yet the Dean claims that this comment suggests that I do 
not belong at a Catholic college (one where half the students are not Catholic, 
like many of the faculty and staff).

 

I would appreciate it if emails sent to the Dean are forwarded to me at 
stevencolatrella@xxxxxxxxxxx, so that I can keep track of the level of support 
for press purposes.  Susan Pauly can also be reached by phone at 319-363-8213.  
I can be reached at 319-366-1078.

 

Thank you, 

 

Steven Colatrella




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