How prescient. And BTW, Gonzalez is by all indications a burnt out scientist. A top ranked ID supporter, perhaps, considering the lack of real scientists in their ranks. But by no means a top ranked astronomer.
University President Denies Appeal in Tenure Case of Intelligent Design Astronomer at Iowa State University by Robert Crowther Design Astronomer at Iowa State University Ames, IA â Dr. Guillermo Gonzalez, co-author of The Privileged Planet and an advocate of the scientific theory of intelligent design, has lost his first appeal to overturn the decision to deny him tenure at Iowa State University. President Gregory L. Geoffroy announced the decision yesterday to deny Dr. Gonzalez's appeal, despite the fact that Dr. Gonzalez published 350% more peer-reviewed journal articles than is "ordinarily" supposed to show research excellence in his department. âItâs a sad day for science and free inquiry when tenure is denied to a scientist of Guillermo Gonzalezâs caliber,â said Dr. John G. West, associate director of Discovery Instituteâs Center for Science & Culture, where Dr. Gonzalez is a senior fellow. âPresident Geoffroy has clearly demonstrated that academic freedom is not as important to Iowa State University as passing an ideological litmus test.â Faculty in Gonzalezâs department admitted to World magazine that his intelligent design work played a role in their decision to deny him tenure. Given Dr. Gonzalezâs level of achievement, many suspect that he is the latest victim of discrimination against proponents of intelligent design theory. According to the Smithsonian/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS), Dr. Gonzalez has the highest "normalized citation count" among astronomers in his department for his publications since 2001, the year he joined ISU's faculty. The normalized citation count is a standard measure of the scientific impact of a scientist's research in the scientific community. Dr. Gonzalezâs research has been featured in Science, Nature, and on the cover of Scientific American, and other professors in his department use a peer-reviewed astronomy textbook he co-authored, which was published by Cambridge University Press. Dr. Gonzalez has twenty days to decide whether to appeal President Geoffroy's decision to the Iowa State Board of Regents.
Your constant repetition of your own propaganda that this guy is "burnt out" proves nothing. It is your opinion, nothing more, and apparently based on othing more than a hit piece in a magazine. Even faculty in his own department have admitted that this was about religion, not publications. Keep drinking that kool aid though. Stringing together my unrelated quotes is about as intellectually honest as your attacks on Gonzalez. I don't know how else but "bigots" an honest person would describe a faculty committee formed to blackball a man because of his religion. You, on the other hand, throw such terms around to try and trump people who disagree with you. That may work brilliantly in the faculty lounge of whatever junior college you teach at, but it just annoys people in the real world.
he's burned out... and a senior fellow at a political & religious faction http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_Institute#Controversy dubious funding http://www.texscience.org/files/discovery.htm next...
Back doing what you're good at - rumor mongering. Which faculty in his own department admitted that this was about religion? Do you have a direct quote? He averaged over 10 papers per year before coming to Iowa state, but averaged less than 2 papers per year since 2004 (7 papers in 4 years). In your opinion, what is the proper description of such productivity level if not "burnt out?" You're assuming that all academic decisions are made based on religious reasons. And then you're calling those who made the decisions "bigots." Maybe you don't understand what the term "bigot" means.
Frankly I do not care how this debate resolves but I had to react to your continued disingenuous statements on this board. How can you claim to be an academic and continue to writes such bizarre shit? I seriously doubt you are a professor of anything. No self respecting professor would write such garbage. "count up the papers and declare burnout"? In your faculty lounge -- is that how fellow professors determine quality? when you are grading a students exam do you count up the keystrokes put them on a bell curve and assign grades? I can't speak for your supposed stats dept but I can speak for lawyers - law professors and their department heads wish to see publications in the top law reviews. I also know that physics professors compete to published in top publications. You cant tell me that a few papers in top journals would not be far more productive than 20 in the James Bond statistical quarterly.
You're making excuses for Dr. Gonzalez that would even make himself blush. Almost all of his papers were published in ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL. Assuming that the journal didn't all of a sudden change their criteria for publication since 2004, there is no question that he had had a drop in productivity.
I am not making excuses for the professor. I am in favor of hard core academics and intellectual contribution. I have no idea if he was an excellent professor or not. If they let go of a marginal professor good for them. I am in favor of test scores and quality institutions. I suggested we give IQ tests to govt workers in important positions. I found the Bush administrations hiring of a large group of cronies from a marginal school to be disgusting. if this gonzalez guy is a good professor he will be able to prove it.
I took the statement regarding his own department from a post above. If it's inaccurate, I'm sure you would have ferreted that fact out by now. I am not in a position to judge the merits of his production. I do not think that simply counting the number of articles is dispositive, particularly when he is apparently at the crux of an ugly on-campus war over religion. This thread seems to be degenerating into name-calling, and I regret any contribution toward that on my part. I resent being called a bigot for no reason however. I see two important issues here, and I will leave it at that. One, I think a candidate's religious beliefs have no part in tenure considerations unless they somehow have adversely affected his work. On the facts of this case, it seems apparent that the major factor in denying Gonzalez tenure when 91% of his colleagues received it was in fact his religious belief. I am fairly confident that the federal courts will agree with me. Two, I think the institution of academic tenure has outlived whatever usefulness it may have once had. There is zero diversity of thought or opinion on university campuses today, and as seen here, potential dissenting voices are barred at the gate by the academic thought police. A state which is funding a university has a legitimate interest in seeing that it produces academic excellence and does not descend into a cesspool of extremist politics.