Seligman, protesters critical of professor

Allowed to disrupt classes for other high-tuition paying students-

Protesting students entered Steven Landsburg’s room at the beginning of his mid-afternoon class and formed a line at the front. / Provided by Jesse Partrick

Thirty University of Rochester students held a protest Wednesday afternoon in the classroom of a UR economics professor who said that Rush Limbaugh provided the “requisite mockery” of a Georgetown University law student.

Limbaugh had generated a firestorm of criticism for calling Georgtown student Sandra Fluke a “slut” and “prostitute” because she testified before congressional Democrats that she wanted her college health plan to cover birth control.

The protest, which took place at Hutchison Hall, came after UR President Joel Seligman sharply criticized the professor, Steven Landsburg.

Seligman’s statement, which was included in a Wednesday email of college news sent to faculty and staff, said that he is “outraged that any professor would demean a student in this fashion.”

Protesting students entered Landsburg’s room at the beginning of his mid-afternoon class.

“They formed a line between him and the class. And he continued to lecture,” said UR spokeswoman Sharon Dickman.

She noted that a couple of University Security officers were on the scene, but they didn’t need to take any action.

Landsburg dismissed class about five minutes early, Dickman said.

UR student Alykhan Alani, one of the protesters, said the group was not ready to discuss their concerns.

But a flier found at the protest says, “We denounce professor Steven Landsburg’s attempt to smear a gender with derogatory terms.”

The flier further says, “We are dismayed that a fully tenured academic would so carelessly sully our fine institution’s name.”

Landsburg’s comments appeared across three entries on his blog, between March 2 to March 7.

He said that that Fluke “deserves only to be ridiculed, mocked and jeered,” and that “Rush stepped in to provide the requisite mockery” with a “spot-on analogy.”

Landsburg went on to write that Limbaugh wanted to brand Fluke a “slut,” but said he disagrees with that characterization and that a “far better word might have been ‘prostitute.’ ”
However, Landsburg added, that word also doesn’t fit.

“She will, as I understand it, be having sex whether she gets paid or not. The right word for that is something much closer to ‘extortionist.’ Or better yet, ‘extortionist with an overweening sense of entitlement,’ ” Landsburg wrote.

Seligman’s statement said that Landsburg has right to express his views, but took him to task for his comments.

“To openly ridicule, mock, or jeer a student in this way is about the most offensive thing a professor can do. We are here to educate, to nurture, to inspire, not to engage in character assassination,” said Seligman.

In an email to the Democrat and Chronicle, Landsburg said that Seligman wants the university to promote the free exchange of ideas, but that Fluke “didn’t even pretend to be interested in debating any of the serious issues raised by the question of when some of us should pick up the tab for others’ expenses.”

Professor Honey Meconi, director of the Susan B. Anthony Institute for Gender and Women’s Studies at UR, said that Seligman’s comments were on the mark, in what she called “an eloquent defense of the necessity of civil discourse.”

Landsburg’s comments, she said, did not.

read more: http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20120307/NEWS01/303070022/University-of-Rochester-Rush-Limbaugh-Steven-Landsburg
Steven Landsburg / Provided by University of Rochester

The controversy

On Feb. 23, Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke testified to congressional Democrats that birth control should be covered by health insurance at religious institutions. The next day, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh called Fluke a “slut” and a “prostitute.”
“She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex,” Limbaugh told his national audience.