David Noble

>
>--------- Forwarded message ----------
>>Date: Thu, 03 May 2001 21:04:08 -0500
>>From: Bob McChesney <
rwmcches@uiuc.edu>

>>Subject: Noblegate
>>
>>Please read this and then email this to every any U.S. professor you
>>know
>>who might be interested in academic freedom issues. We are trying to
>>keep
>>David Noble from losing his job for political reasons, much due to his
>>work
>>as a labor activist. This is an important fight and if we get enough
>>names,
>>we can maybe even win it.
>>
>>Thanks.
>>
>>Bob
>>
>>
>>Dear Colleague:
>>
>>      You may have heard that David Noble was selected to  occupy a Chair
in
>>the Humanities at Simon Fraser University in Canada, but was then denied
>>this appointment by adminsitrative fiat. As the decisions in this case
>>have not yet been finalized, we have prepared a letter of protest from
>>U.S.
>>academics to be sent to a Simon Fraser officer having a role in this
>>decision process. To assist you in understanding the issues involved we
>>have attached a letter of protest sent by concerned academics at the
>>University of Western Ontario, along with a backgrounder prepared by
>>David
>>Noble.
>>
>>     We want you to join us and sign on to this protest letter. If you are
>>agreeable, please send your assent, along with your position and
>>university, to Bob McChesney at his e-mail address:
rwmcches@uiuc.edu.

>>Please respond by Monday, May 7 at the very latest so we can send this
>>letter off on Tuesday, May 8.
>>
>>     Thank you very much.
>>
>>Edward S. Herman
>>Robert W. McChesney
>>
>>
>>Here is the letter:
>>
>>     As U.S. academics, we write to protest Simon Fraser University's
>>cancellation of Dr. David Noble's appointment to the J.S. Woodsworth
>>Chair in the Humanities and to express our support for Dr. Noble as a
>>scholar and democratic activist.
>>
>>      As we understand it, the Woodsworth Chair is named for a
>>distinguished Canadian labor activist and is being underwritten by
>>trade unions and progressive individuals. Dr. Noble would appear to
>>be an almost perfect choice for such an appointment. He has combined
>>eminent scholarship relevant to labor issues and, more broadly,
>>social sciences and the humanities, with a political activism that
>>represents genuine democracy and is in the spirit of J. S. Woodworth
>>and the Chair sponsors.
>>
>>     Dr. Noble's qualifications as a scholar are beyond question. He ranks
>>in the global first tier of historians of technology; those of us who
>>work in this field honor him as a groundbreaking scholar whose
>>reputation spans nearly a quarter-century. There are no grounds,
>>intellectual or scholarly, by which he fails to qualify for the
>>Woodsworth Chair.
>>
>>     We strongly urge you to recognize the suitability of Dr. Noble for
>>the J.S. Woodsworth Chair, as well as the damage to the university's
>>reputation that would follow from his rejection. The long-term
>>interests of Simon Fraser University will not be served by allowing
>>this selection to be blocked by political and interest group
>>opposition.
>>
>>     To us, this seems to be a case where nothing less than academic
>>freedom at Simon Fraser University hangs in the balance. We urge you
>>to do the right thing and make certain that Dr. Noble is appointed to
>>the Woodsworth Chair that he deserves.
>
>>Robert W. McChesney
>>Institute of Communications Research
>>University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
>>
www.robertmcchesney.com
>
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