Marquette University student suspended for blog posts

I blog about marketing but this one was off the wall enough to share.

Marquette University School of Dentistry student, Theodore Schrubbe, was suspended from the school Friday for comments he made on his personal Weblog (since taken down) about unnamed professors and students. Ironically, details on the suspension saga are being blogged by associate professor of political science John McAdams at his blog.

What did the lad do that was so gosh awful bad?

In one particular post, Schrubbe made disparaging comments about an unnamed professor whom he had the previous semester: ‘I don’t even gratify him by calling him a professor. He is one who teaches, as in should teach infants and children. Professors profess knowledge and wisdom.’

Rightly so, this suspension is not sitting well with Professor McAdams.

Because Marquette is a private school, students do not have typical First Amendment rights… A private university can have stricter standards, but just because they can doesn’t mean they ought. The main question, he said, is whether Marquette is ‘prudent to try to suppress this kind of speech.

I could see this type of thing from a senior partner going after an outspoken law firm associate, law firms are strange places. But in academia where we should cherish and promote free speech? God forbid we turn dentists loose like that loose on unsuspecting mouths.