The director of the Berkeley Atmospheric Sciences Center is stepping down from his leadership post in an apparent protest against cancel culture in higher education and the academy’s growing intolerance of viewpoint diversity.
UC Berkeley Professor David Romps explained his reasoning in a lengthy Twitter thread posted Monday, citing MIT’s recent decision to cancel a guest lecture because of the invited scientist’s political views.
Dorian Abbot, associate professor of geophysical sciences at the University of Chicago, had been scheduled to give the John Carlson Lecture in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at MIT on October 21, but the department canceled the lecture due to Abbot’s criticism of diversity, equity and inclusion.
Abbot has proposed an alternative framework to DEI called Merit, Fairness and Equality, which would treat applicants “as individuals and evaluated through a rigorous and unbiased process based on their merit and qualifications alone.”
Romps tweeted that, in response to MIT canceling the guest lecture, he asked the Berkeley Atmospheric Sciences Center faculty to give Abbot a platform “to hear the science talk he had prepared and, by extending the invitation now, reaffirm that BASC is a purely scientific organization, not a political one.”
Abbot had, in fact, given a guest lecture at Berkeley in the past.
“In the ensuing discussion among the BASC faculty, it became unclear to me whether we could invite that scientist ever again, let alone now,” Romps tweeted.
Full story at The College Fix.
Does anyone else remember when the left’s rallying cry was “tolerance”. Now they cancel anyone who does not agree with them.
he wasn’t canceled he quit
I’m putting the phrase “ intolerance of viewpoint diversity” into my memory bank. It can be used ad infinitum when talking with a Leftist.
I have just retired from academia and one could see all this coming. For years diversity (and inclusion) guided the policies and procedures at the community college where I taught for 31 years full time. A turn came when the political correctness of identity politics began to trump academic freedom and gave rise to the snowflake culture where speech was sanctioned, or threats made, if it brought subjective offence to anyone belonging to a certified victim group. People lost jobs for comments made regardless of their truth or falsity; I know because a friend of mine, an adjunct English instructor, fell victim to such. He corrected the wrong person in a group discussion and lost his job by non-renewal of his contract, even though his point was correct. In the end I hope sanity returns to the academy but it will not return soon, I fear, It may take resignations of highly qualified and valuable academics like Dr. Romps to wake up the closed minds of those who make policy.
Stepping down is ‘mission accomplished’ for the very people he’s protesting. While they should see this as something of an embarrassing rebuke, instead this is seen as an appropriate action taken by their foe.
He won’t be missed and he’ll be forgotten by next semester. We need our own schools, like we used to have…
Mark, it is likely he will find a better job where he is far more comfortable. I know. A similar thing happened to me before I retired. I left the summer job I hated after I got another one with better pay, more hours and did not have to pay union dues.
Later I took early retirement from my permanent job with good benefits because I could see it coming as Dan said, and I am just fine. When God closes a door, He truly opens a window. Sometimes we have to follow our “gut instincts” and “quit’ for our sanity, like the young woman who “quit” the Olympics. Her life IS worth more than than the gold.
Why would a Berkeley professor resign to protest a decision at mit? Doesn’t make sense.
Thank you for your comment. The story has been updated to include more information.
Thanks but still sounds fishy.
I remember Brandon, we were told constantly tolerance tolerance day in and day out but now we know it’s only the Leftist Communists Democrats who have the only opinion. And the new rallying cry is Let’s go Brandon.
Romulus, the opposite of leftist communist democrats would be rightist fascist republicans. I think neither is either. People have different opinions on the role of government. Some think that no government is best and others support the idea of an activist government. And then there are us moderates. It is OK to have different views. It is OK to disagree. If we are ever to unite this country, we must listen hard, try to understand, and come to some conclusion that satisfies, for the day, both viewpoints. We have to stop the hate. We didn’t use to hate each other. Maybe we listen to too many cable news talking heads, on both sides. Pax et Bonum!
Bob One this country will never be united; one side accepts objective truth; the other rejects it. I am tired of “listening and dialogue.” One side demands I must refer to them as man when the truth and biology tells me they are woman. One side demands I accept sodomy as marriage when I know it’s a sin that cries to heaven for vengeance.
As Tucker Carlson says: Shut up and obey, this is what the Left in America tells us to do, look around you utter chaos in America all done on purpose, wide open borders, murders in Democrat run cities Chicago, Los Angeles, Portland, San Francisco, D.C. Atlanta, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, thousands of police leaving the force, Walgreens & CVS closed over 50 stores in San Francisco alone due to rampant theft with no consequences, forced vaccine mandates, hundreds of thousands of migrants pouring over the open Southern border infected with covid19, measles, malaria, and shipped all over the United States in the cover of darkness as they did in Westchester N.Y. last week. Teaching our children schools to hate each other based on race, asking them do you feel like a boy or a girl?? This is what 81,000,000 people voted for? I don’t think they did, Biden hid for over 2 years in his basement with the Left wing media running cover for him and this is what happened with an election that was not fair in any way shape or form. This country is in a Civil War and we don’t realize it yet.
I agree, Romulus. How do you find “middle ground” with this, as Bob One suggests?
Walgreens and CVS have NOT closed over 50 stores in SF, and the stores they closed were not really due to theft, as they said.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/Is-shoplifting-forcing-Walgreens-to-cut-back-in-16536960.php
The same people saying bake the cake for the gay wedding or go to jail are the same people saying don’t give people medical care unless they got the jab. This is a crazy world.
Dan:
Enjoy a well deserved retirement.
I hope this new chapter is full of blessings for you.
Thank you for your many good comments here.
I disagree with the mis guided tactic of resigning one’s post in the face of such trials. Satan and his followers, would love every truth seeking person to resign from Academia, the police, the Judicial Branch, the clergy, etc. It makes it much easier as time goes on, to not have dissent within the ranks and to not worry about the chance of the disclosure the evil internal workings of these movements.
Academics are best left to voice their honest thoughts. Many who occupy academic positions do so at a cost— they are paid poorly in exchange for tenure. They spend years toiling only to have the Right to exclaim at them— teach it our way or to hell with you! I claim Brandon acted out of his conscience — only to be scapegoated…