Wall Street Journal, Letter, April 15, 2016

Ed. Note: This published letter was in response to a Wall Street Journal editorial (“Punished for Blogging at Marquette,” Review & Outlook, April 2, 2016) about a tenured professor at Marquette who was suspended without pay and faces dismissal for blogging that a colleague was  “using a tactic typical among liberals now. Opinions with which they disagree are not merely wrong, and are not to be argued against on their merits, but are deemed ‘offensive’ and need to be shut up.” The colleague had chastised a student for expressing opposition to same sex marriage telling the student she could drop the class but could not express her “offensive” opinion.

Marquette Professor John McAdams apparently doesn’t understand that Academic Freedom applies only to correct thought and speech. (“Punished for Blogging at Marquette,” Review & Outlook, April 8) He would have been wiser to advocate for something like Reparations to ISIS for the Crusades. It is discouraging to realize that families and students are impoverishing themselves for an education at Marquette, an institution run by people who cannot think.

Brian R. Merrick

West Barnstable MA