Stuart Hurlbert, San Diego State University Professor Emeritus of Biology, faces a faculty petition to remove his emeritus status. Hurlbert openly supports greater restrictions for immigration and rejects BLM. 

The implications for these actions threaten the integrity of the academy. SDU recently sought to introduce a rule to remove tenure status from Professors,

“when it is determined that an individual’s conduct, before or after emeritus status has been granted, causes harm to the university’s reputation.”

The proposal went back to subcommittee due to concerns for academic freedom.

Peter Herman, professor of literature at San Diego State and open critic of the proposal commented on the committee actions.

It was trying to preserve the university’s reputation above academic freedom or prevent them from being criticized in any way.

Herman also went on to say

There is no timeline on this. How far back are you going to go, to look for something that would harm the university’s reputation? And of course, what exactly does that mean and who is going to judge this?

In other words, SDU’s passing of this proposal would set a dangerous precedent for tenure. For sure, what happens here will resonate throughout the American academy.

Just another situation where the ugly intentions of cancel culture becomes evident.