Friday, Feb. 11, 2005 | 10:46 a.m.
UNLV's attempt to resolve a dispute with one of its economic professors has only inflamed the issue, ACLU officials said Thursday.
UNLV's proposed resolution, which was to issue tenured professor Hans-Hermann Hoppe a "nondisciplinary letter of instruction," further violates Hoppe's First Amendment rights to free speech, his academic freedom and his due process rights, said ACLU of Nevada executive director Gary Peck and attorney Allen Lichtenstein.
The letter, which executive vice president and provost Raymond W. Alden sent to Hoppe Thursday morning, instructs Hoppe to "cease mischaracterizing opinion as objective fact in the educational environment."
The university's rebuke came after a student complained of a March 2004 lecture in which Hoppe made generalizations about the spending and savings habits of gays.
In a phone interview with Lichtenstein on Thursday, Hoppe said he was the "victim" and said the university has violated its bylaws on academic freedom.
"What they demand of me here is something that entirely incompatible with what the university code on academic freedom states," Hoppe said.
The ACLU will file a lawsuit in federal court if UNLV does not completely drop its attempts to punish Hoppe, Peck and Lichtenstein said.
Peck and Lichtenstein both expressed outrage that the university sent out a formal statement to media saying that Hoppe was not being punished and that the "university has seen this process through to a fair conclusion for all parties involved."
"To send a letter like they did to Hans, and pretend it is not a form of discipline or punishment is preposterous," Peck said. "The letter says in essence you are guilty and it better not happen again."
In his letter to Hoppe, Alden writes that the professor violated the university's non-discrimination policy when he made comments in class about homosexuals, according to a copy of the letter obtained by the Sun.
Hoppe said in the lecture that homosexuals tend to plan less for the future than heterosexuals because they are less likely to have children and engage in riskier behavior, Lichtenstein said. Hoppe made similar generalizations about the very young and very old, all groups who are less likely to save for future plans because of a preference to have things now rather than later.
A grievance committee established by the university to investigate a student complaint found that Hoppe's comments "created a hostile or intimidating education experience in violation of the university's policies regarding discrimination as to sexual orientation," Alden wrote.
The grievance committee also found that Hoppe refused to substantiate his claims with empirical data or peer-reviewed academic literature.
By refusing to substantiate the in-class statements at his hearing, Hoppe violated the "appropriate standards of scholarship and instruction responsibility, as well as the accuracy obligation" laid out in the university system's code on academic freedom and responsibility, Alden writes.
Hoppe, however, said he did present the committee with articles backing up his position and tried to explain his theories in laymen's terms because no one on the committee was an economist, though Hoppe and the ACLU also contend that he did not have todefend economic theories before what they called a "truth squad" of the university.
"The letter seems to suggest that the university is going to establish a truth squad that will monitor theories presented by faculty to determine whether or not they have adequate empirical support to be presented to a class," Peck said. "If that's the road they want to go down First Amendment and academic freedom are at serious risk."
Hoppe said a professor often makes hypothetical statements, illustrations and points during lectures to explain a topic, and said it's not plausible to go to "great lengths of elaborately defending them."
Hoppe, who said he presented his examples as plausible hypothesis, is backed on that point by numerous economists -- even those who oppose the theories Hoppe supports.
The examples Hoppe gives, such as being childless or indulging in risky behavior that might shorten one's lifespan, would effect how much someone saves for the future, said several economists including Walter Block, who holds an endowed chair of economics at Loyola University in New Orleans and is a top scholar of the Austrian School of Economics.
"These are not statements that are coming out of loony land," Hoppe said. "But at the same time I am not presenting them as the whole truth and nothing but the truth."
Richard Linstrom, UNLV's attorney and its official designated spokesman on the issue, said the ACLU was misconstruing the letter of instruction.
The letter did not bar Hoppe or any other professor from stating their opinions, it just asked that opinions be labeled as such, Linstrom said.
"Academic freedom doesn't mean that you can subject people to your personal opinions without at least designating them as opinions or backing them up with fact," Linstrom said.
Linstrom said he and other UNLV officials were limited in what they could say about the case because it is considered a confidential personnel matter.
University system policy obligates officials to investigate any claims of discrimination, Linstrom said. The university must balance academic freedom while ensuring that students and staff are able to work in a non-hostile environment.
Jonathan Knight, director of the American Association of University Professors committee on academic freedom and tenure, said he need to know more about the case to be able to respond. But he said he feared the university's actions would lead to a chilling effect in other classes.
"At the heart of an institution of higher learning is the freedom of teachers and researchers to explore new ideas and challenge new beliefs," Knight said. "If they are constrained in doing so not only do students suffer because they are not getting the best education possible, but society suffers too because they won't reap the benefits of new truths or the questioning of old beliefs."
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