Cancellings

See also Nondisclosure Clauses.

• China launches app for citizens to report anyone who has 'mistaken opinions' or 'denies the excellence of socialist culture' The app and hotline has been released ahead of party's 100th anniversary ..." (2021).

• "THE NEW PURITANS", Atlantic (2021) by Ann Applebaum is a good survey with lots of specifics about cancellings and the various effects on its victims.

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Commentary on Cancellings Generally

• "he-second-great-age-of-political-correctness/ " Reason (Dec.2021).

• Level 2 and 3 Witch Hunts

2021 and 2019 ( Paul Graham

We can classify witch hunts by how long such paths can be. E.g. in a level 3 witch hunt, you can be targeted for defending someone who defended someone who was targeted. I saw that happen in 2020. I don't think I've seen 4 hops yet though.

It happened to me. A mob came after me when I tweeted this because they thought I was defending Stallman for defending Minsky. (Actually I wasn't. Stallman just happened to be one of two people getting cancelled then.)

Sep 17, 2019

If we extended human lifespans sufficiently, everyone would be cancelled. The drift in moral fashion would ensure that even those most carefully orthodox in their opinions would have said something that later became heretical.

2019 had 245 comments and 105 quote retweets and 2K Likes.

• Wooldridge cancelling, power v. authority

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Dorian Abbot (MIT, 2021)

• "Campaign to endorse the Chicago Principles on freedom of expression," list of MIT faculty who signed.

• The MIT Free Speech Alliance, an alumni group formed in response to the Abbot cancellation.

• mit-community-rallies-behind-chicago-statement-after-dorian-abbot-disinvitation/," FIRE (November 2021).

• Harald Uhlig Tweet on Ivan Werning not signing.

• The MIT Free Speech page.

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Boudreau (Central Michigan, 2021)

• A FOIA request got the settlement agreement. See Volokh Conspiracy.

Prof. Boudreau, who was represented by a lawyer from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, withdrew any claims he might have against CMU, retired from CMU (he was apparently eligible for retirement), and in exchange received 10 months' salary and benefits (from Sept. 1, 2020 when he had been fired, to June 30, 2021, the end of this academic year).

5. Dr. Boudreau shall be paid in a lump sum, less normal withholding taxes the value of pay and CMU's contribution to benefits through June 30, 2021 within thirty (30) days of this settlement. A W-2 will be issued for this payment.

15. Dr. Boudreau agrees that the terms of this Release, including the payment made hereunder, are confidential and shall not be divulged to any third party except his spouse, tax advisor, CPA, wealth manager, and/or his attorneys who shall be advised of this confidentiality provision. Dr. Boudreau shall not be held liable for breach of this confidentiality clause in the event he is compelled via subpoena to under oath in court of law regarding details or terms of his severance and/or settlement agreement provided that he gives prompt notice to the CMU's General Counsel so CMU has the opportunity to object to the subpoena.

16. In the event that Dr. Boudreau violates any aspect of this Agreement, he acknowledges that said breach shall cause damage to CMU. The parties understand that CMU may have to reveal the terms pursuant to FOIA unrelated to any request by the Union or Dr. Boudreau, who agree not to make, encourage, or otherwise participate in such request.

19. Dr. Boudreau shall not, by oral or written expression or any other act of communication to any third party, by name, disparage, criticize, or impugn the reputation or character of CMU's curent or former Board of Trustees members, Board of Trustees, administrators, directors, other employees,eagents and representatives, both individually and in their official capacities (Releas6s). This provision shall not be construed to prohibit Dr. Boudreau from communicating his disagreement with CMU's decision to terminate his employment for the way he spoke various words including the "n-word", his criticism of CMU's decision and generally his beliefs and opinion on the efficacy of his teaching methods. Dr. Boudreau further agrees that this provision concerning non-disparagement is a material condition ofthe consideration contained herein, that this provision is an essential part of this Agreement, and that any violation ofthe terms ofthis paragraph shall be deemed a material breach of the entire Agreement.

21. Dr. Boudreau agrees that this Agreement shall be binding and inure to the benefit of his successors, executors, administrators, personal representatives and assigns, and to the benefit of the predecessors, successors, and assigns of the Releasees, and further agrees and acknowledges that this Agreement contains and comprises the entire agreement and understandings of the parties, and that there are no additional promises or terms of this Agreement, other than those contained within this document and the documents referenced herein.

23. If any provision of this Agreement shall for any reason be held invalid, illegal, unenforceable, or in conflict with any law governing this Agreement, the validity of the remaining portions of this Agreement shall not be affected but shall continue in full legal force and effect to the fullest extent allowed by law.

Observations:

• (1) He can talk about the incident he was fired for.
• (2) He can disparage the University, just not the various individuals who are to blame for any university scandals he may reveal.
• (3) The University and its officials are free to disparage him however much they want.
• (4) No damages are specified for breach of the clause. He is paid his settlement money within 30 days, and there are no liquidated damages. Presumably the damages would be the default of expectation damages, which in this case would be like defamation damages except he would be liable for harm caused even by truthful statements about public figures.

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Sara Braasch (Leftwing Yale Graduate Student who called the police when she found a strange black woman sleeping outside her dorm room, 2018)

• Braasch's blog, screenshots of the Left's attempt to harass her and drive her to suicide (2021)

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Jed DeVaro ( Cal State-East Bay econ)

• Jed DeVaro faculty profile and his Google Scholar Citation page.

• "Professors not immune to gender inequality: Jung Sook You, CSUEB," The Pioneer, November 30, 2020.

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Roland Fryer (Harvard econ, 2019)

• "Harvard, the NY Times and the #MeToo Takedown of a Black Academic Star," Stuart Taylor Jr., RealClearInvestigations, January 29, 2019.

• "The Lynching of Roland Fryer," Substack (2021).

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Katz, Joshua (Princeton Classics)

• Eight professors, 7 anonymous, criticize the Administration, October 27, 2021.

• "Alumni allege history of inappropriate conduct with female students by Princeton professor Joshua Katz," Marie-Rose Sheinerman and Evelyn Doskoch, The Princetonian,

(February 4, 2021) but see the harsh criticisms of that article at "Editorial: "McCarthyism at the Daily Princetonian", Princetonians for Free Speech and the Elizabeth Bogan letter that the Princetonian wouldn't publish.

• "How Low Did Princeton Go?," Rod Dreher, The American Conservative (September 15, 2021).

• "My Confessions," Joshua Katz, First Things (October 2021).

Early in my career, however, I made a grave mistake, by which I mean something beyond the bounds of “merely” bad behavior, something sinful: I had a relationship with a student whom I was at the same time teaching. It was a consensual relationship between adults; it took place at a time when Princeton’s rules permitted students and faculty to engage in sexual contact, provided there was no pedagogical or supervisory conflict; and there was no Title IX violation. Still, it was a sin.

It is a sin I lived with every day. It ate away at me. But I lived with it alone. Alone, that is, until weeks after the #MeToo movement took off in late 2017, when an anonymous complainant—not the woman ­herself—informed Princeton about the more-than-a-decade-old affair. The result was an internal investigation, which culminated in a one-year suspension without pay.

Even before I knew that my life was about to change, I had begun reading theology and occasionally attending church (in that order—once a bookish academic, always a bookish academic). The fact is that I was sad, I was making a mess of my personal life, and I needed help.

Then I learned of the investigation, learned that I would likely be suspended, and found myself in need of help on an entirely different level. I was on sabbatical in London at the time, and my future mother-in-law—I had only just begun dating her daughter, a former (yes, former) student of mine who was now at Cambridge—gave me the following firm instruction: Get myself to the Temple Church, whose Master (senior cleric), the Rev. Robin Griffith-Jones, she had heard preach a few years earlier in New York.

...

Two reporters at the main student newspaper spent seven months digging into my private life. Surmising that I had been suspended, they published an article about me in the first week of February that “threw away basic journalistic standards” (in the words of Princetonians for Free Speech) in its reliance on hearsay, innuendo, and hostile anonymous sources.

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Kilborn, Jason

• "Law prof says he was forced to undergo lengthy mental examination & drug test after exam question caused students ‘distress’," (2021):

Kilborn told Campus Reform that his classes “were cancelled for the entire semester on the very first day of class. He said he also had to undergo “an agonizing several-week period of ‘administrative leave,’” during which he was “barred from campus and prevented from participating in normal faculty communications and activities, including my elected position on the university promotion and tenure committee.”

Kilborn said he was compelled to submit to three hours of mental examination and a drug test by university doctors and a social worker, broken into two segments spanning the course of a week.

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Chad KIMBALL (Broadway actor, 2021)

• "Tony nominee Chad Kimball: I was fired from Broadway for being Christian," New York Post.

Brian KLATTMAN (Lehigh, 2021)

• "Visiting math professor removed from the classroom following social media posts brought to university’s attention ," GABRIELLE FALK,NOVEMBER 9, 2021, The Brown and White.

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Diane Klein (LaVerne, Chapman)

• "Law professor says university fired her by ‘racializing’ criticism of black colleague’s performance," CHRISTIAN LUBKE (AUGUST 26, 2020).

In a meeting on the future of the law school last fall, Klein told colleagues that they must decide “whether we are willing to assassinate” Assistant Dean Jendayi Saada, who runs the Center for Academic and Bar Readiness.

• Insider Higher Education article.

• Petition from Laverne faculty in support of KLein.

• Chapman Law teaching schedule.

• AAUP State of California Vice President for Private Universities (2020-2022).

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John Kluge (Indiana schoolteacher)

• District Court decision

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Zhihao Kong (Purdue student, Chinese government harassment)

• "even-on-us-campuses-china-cracks-down-on-students-who-speak-out," Pro Publica, Sebastian Rotella (Nov. 2021).

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Walter Lewen (MIT)

This is an odd one. I haven't figure it out yet.

• walter-lewin-sexual-harassment-case.

[https://thetech.com/2014/12/09/walterlewin-v134-n60 "MIT cuts ties with Walter Lewin after online harassment probe Institute revokes emeritus title, removes online courses of popular physics professor who starred in viral videos"] The Tech (2014).

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John MacAdams (Marquette, 2018)

"John McAdams, political science professor who took Marquette to the state Supreme Court, dies," Devi Shastri, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, April 15, 2021.

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Meriwether (Ohio, gender pronouns)

See Meriwether Case of Administration Persecution. Not a cancelling case, really, if I remember right; a wokeness case, though.

Joseph Petry (Illinois)

• Feb. 28, 2020 University Report online.

• June 11, 2020 News Release by Thies-Webber.

• January 27, 2021 News Release by Thies-Webber after winning on the motion to dismiss, with the Complaint and Motion to Dismiss and Objection to the Motion to Dismiss and Decision. This is the key document.

• Jan 28, 2021 "Ex-professor's breach-of-contract suit against UI can proceed, judge decides," Ben Zigterman [email protected],.

• FEBRUARY 9, 2021, "Judge approves professor’s lawsuit against university for baseless grades-for-sex investigation," HENRY KOKKELER - WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY. This is a very informative article.

Stephen Porter (NC State, 2021)

"“Death by a Thousand Cuts”: Professor Files Lawsuit Against NC State University," Inside Higher Education, Oct. 11, 2021, Shannon Watkins.

Judge Pryor (2021)

• Attack on him by Dorf on Law for hiring a clerk who sent an anti-black tweet once a few years ago.

Sanders, Steve (Indiana Law, 2021)

• FIRE writeup of the situation, around Dec. 15.

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Shaw, Jodi (Smith librarian)

• Her lawsuit complaint (2021).

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Harald UHLIG (Chicago Econ, 2020)

• Petition calling for the resignation of Harald Uhlig as editor of JPE:

To: The Coeditors of the Journal of Political Economy and Director of The University of Chicago Press

We, the undersigned, call for the resignation of Harald Uhlig, the Bruce Allen and Barbara Ritzenthaler Professor in Economics at the University of Chicago, as the Lead Editor of the Journal of Political Economy. Prof. Uhlig's comments published on his blog (https://bit.ly/3cN0L97) and Twitter posts dated June 8th, trivializing the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and drawing parallels between the BLM movement and the Ku Klux Klan, are outrageous and unacceptable. They hurt and marginalize people of color and their allies in the economics profession; call into question his impartiality in assessing academic work on this and related topics; and damage the standing of the economics discipline in society. We do not question the right of Prof. Uhlig to make such comments, but we are strongly opposed to him holding a position of power as the editor of a prominent journal in our discipline.

Signed by Richard Tol, Oliver Jehiel, Sharon Oster, Shelly Lundberg, Ivan Werning, David Cutler, Chris Blattman, Paul Goldsmith, Severin Borenstein, Arthur Silve, Andrew Atkeson, Scott Imberman, Jennifer Doleac, Justin Wolfers, Judith Chevalier,

• Uhlig tweet with Rasmusen comments on the MIT Free Speech petition, its signers, and its nonsigners.

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Allyn Walker (Old Dominion, 2021)

• Daily Mail article, October 21, 2021.

A transgender university professor in Virginia has been placed on leave after defending pedophiles as 'Minor Attracted People' and saying they shouldn't be ostracized because they can't help their natural urges....Walker has written a book that tries to destigmatize pedophilia. It encourages people to refer to pedophiles as 'Minor Attracted People' and says they shouldn't be ostracized for their urges, which they can't help.... said that the online backlash had led to concerns for Walker's safety and that of the campus, and placing them on leave was the best course of action.

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Amy Wax (Penn Law)

• 2018 New Criterion article

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Zimmerman, James (Nashville clarinet, 2021)

• " How Racial Anxiety Conquered an Orchestra and Crushed a Career" Aaron Sibarium, Washington Free Beacon. A black oboeist on temp status because of his musicial weakness was hired by breaking the rules and not having fellow musicians vote on him. A clarinetist, James Zimmerman, who had advocated for his temporary trial and gotten him the job, was assigned to help him. He resented that, and with another musician, accused Zimmerman of stalking them and got Zimmerman fired. The Board boasted about it, and the Union refused to support him.

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