Weber State Speaks

Did WSU professor lose job for Boyd K. Packer building opposition?

The above is a link to a story in my formerly-local newspaper this morning about Weber State University's ill-advised, poorly considered decision to, it would appear, can a professor for objecting to the naming of anything educational (and state-funded) after Boyd K. Packer.  A pretty good piece, one that includes statements from a campus spokesman.  Of the things he said, two really stand out.

• “Weber State does not make a decision like this lightly, and does not back away from the decision once it is made,"

Okay, what does that sound like to me?  It sounds like someone saying, "We are inflexible and supremely uninterested in any feedback or student body/community objections.  We've done all the thinking we plan to do.  So shut up, already."

• “Weber State stood by that decision because of our respect of a wide spectrum of viewpoints,” (when referring to the creation of a Matthew Shepard scholarship years ago).

Okay, seriously?  This statement is a logical/moral nightmare, and, since I can't imagine Weber State has hired a stupid spokesperson, I can only assume it's intentional.  Comparing the creation of a scholarship in the name of a man beaten and tortured to death for his sexuality with the creation of a program (in the school of education!) named for a man who has routinely (and loudly) condemned homosexuals, interracial marriage, women's rights, academics/scholars (!), and has even spoken against counseling for children, arguing that, by focusing on a child's mental illness, we create or intensify that illness?  

Apples and ANVILS.  There is NO comparison, and shame on Weber State's spokesperson for even going there.  How embarrassing for him.  And for my Alma Mater.

Bottom line, Weber State?  You blew it when you decided to go with this Boyd K. Packer crap, and, worse, you blew it in secret--you didn't put this out there for consideration by the students and faculty at large.  You didn't look for community comment.  No, you made your decision in private, then announced it as immutable, a "done deal."  And then?

Well, gosh, it's kind of looking like you fired an assistant professor for having the balls to dissent.  Because, as we all know, nothing says "haven for learning and inquiry" like refusing to re-up the contract of a professor on tenure-track after he expresses concerns about something as huge as naming a program after a known racist, misogynist, and anti-intellectual.

From a personal standpoint, if this goes national (or international), my degree's going to be the source of much ridicule, I fear.  You know, I skipped my own graduation ceremony because you guys couldn't figure out how to craft a commencement ceremony that didn't look like a church function, and now this?  Maybe we should just drop all pretense and call you "BYU North," huh?

Church, State, and What's the Difference, Anyway?

So, back to the Boyd K. Packer BS on the Weber State University campus.  Here's the deal, in case you missed it.   Well, it turns out the husband (Jared Lisonbee) of the woman (Shairylann Lisonbee, whose parents should be smacked for that spelling) whose letter to the editor first clued me on this freakshow travesty used to be an associate/assistant professor in the very department where this mess is going down.  

Yes, that's an awkward paragraph, but the operative phrase there?  "Used to be."

That's right--he was the only person on staff to raise objections, and now he's out of a job--or will be, once his contract is up.  That's right, Weber chose not to renew, and gave no reason for their decision.  

Now, those Utah-type folks might argue "Oh, it's a coincidence" or "it's got nothing to do with the church or the Packers-decision" or (and most likely, as this is the way this sort of thing so often goes down) "he was let go for unrelated performance issues."  And maybe that's true.  Maybe there's no connection whatsoever.  One thing, though--he was told that he and Weber State just might not be a "good fit."

Hmm.  I've heard those words.  From a staff member teaching in that very building.  I blogged about it HERE months ago.

Here's the scoop on the Lisonbee family and Weber State as it arrived in my email box last night:

On May 6th, Shairylann Lisonbee wrote a letter to the editor, concerning the naming of a family outreach center at Weber State University after LDS Apostle Boyd K. Packer. She suggested that this was a bad idea, since the center was at a public university, and was intended to serve a diverse set of families in the community. The name was problematic because Brother Packer has forcefully spoken out against interracial and homosexual families in the past. It is possible to respect Boyd K. Packer as a person, and as a religious leader, without believing that it is a good idea to put his name on a family outreach center at a public university, given his past statements and views that oppose the loving families of so many.

Inspired by her letter, I wrote my first change.org petition about this issue, borrowing many of her thoughts on the matter. The petition currently has 2,316 signatures. https://www.change.org/petitions/weber-state-university-do-not-name-your-center-for-family-cfce-after-boyd-k-packer.

Shairylann's husband is on the faculty at Weber State University in the College of Education where the Packer Center is housed. When the name of the center was first announced, Jared Lisonbee suggested that naming the center after Brother Packer would alienate many of the very families that the center was intended to serve. He was the only member of the faculty at the meeting to express such obvious concerns.

It has recently come to my attention that Jared has now been removed from his position at the University, and all indications are that his removal was a result of his opposition to the naming of the family center, and of his wife's letter to the editor, and the resulting petition. I believe that this is a morally reprehensible action. If dissenting voices cannot even be heard at a public university, for fear of retaliation that might cost the person their job, then how can an open and free dialogue on the issues be maintained? I believe that this is a severe miscarriage of justice, and, if things are as they strongly appear, this is an apparent attempt by an individual to impose their vision of a harmful and hurtful religious orthodoxy on others at what is supposed to be a public university.

With permission, I would like to quote the letter Shairylann wrote with her initial reaction to the firing of her husband:

"I'm in shock. My husband just lost his job over the naming of the Boyd K. Packer center at Weber State University. He is an assistant professor at Weber in the College of Education - the college responsible for the Packer center. Last year in the faculty meeting where the name for the family center was announced, he was THE ONLY person who protested the naming, mentioning that Packer was not viewed as friendly toward gays, academicians, feminists, and interracial couples. Since then, his department chair became increasingly hostile, making off-handed comments toward him like "You know, Weber State is not a good fit for everyone." On May 6th I wrote my letter to the editor that was published, criticizing naming the Weber's family center after Boyd K. Packer. I shouldn't have. Yesterday, out of the blue, my husband received a letter telling him that his contract would not be renewed, giving no reasons for the decision. It is so obviously related to our opposition to the naming of the Packer Center, but I doubt we could ever prove it. He is going to talk to people today about making a possible case for religious discrimination, but I'm sure we our going to be jobless in the end, and he will have an ugly professional strike against him. I hate that there is no real protection from the church in this state."

Obviously I am very unhappy with what has happened here, and I also feel somewhat responsible, because I am the one that took her original letter to the editor, and turned it into a petition, that eventually ended up in the news, and that produced some bad press for Weber State, a result that may have partially motivated these reprehensible actions. Nevertheless, I feel like we have done the right thing here, despite the price that some have been forced to pay for speaking up.

I would encourage everyone here to again take up the petition, and pass it around among all of your friends and family. Letting the faculty and administrators at Weber State know that there really are a large number of people who oppose their actions and decisions on this matter.

Please pass this on to those that you know, and spread the word.

Thank you,

James L. Carroll

What can I say?  I'm not proud of my Alma Mater right now.  Canning someone for expressing a dissenting view?  That might fit in with the Boyd K. Packer world view, but that's utterly unacceptable for a PUBLICLY FUNDED institution of higher learning in the United States.  If that's what happened, if Mr. Lisonbee was left jobless because he and his wife disagreed with a highly questionable decision, then, my old school shames itself, and shames the rest of us by association.  Come on, be a state university--Utah already has a BYU.

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Speaking of the above disaster, I have friends who work for Weber State University.  They are being vocal and amazingly brave (let's face it, it's scary speaking out against an organization that, allegedly, fired someone for speaking out), and I'm very proud of them.  

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Speaking of the Mormon Church and the endless twisting and melding of church and state in Utah, this meme/picture came sliding across my Facebook wall today:

A beautiful picture, no question about it.  It's gone viral, no telling who took it or when.  And if it doesn't strike terror in your heart, I don't know what will.  This came scudding through with a quote from that atrocious Lee Greenwood song--you know, "Proud to Be an American?"  The picture-perfect melding of church and state here--the clear implication that church IS state.  The sick forwarding of the idea that to be patriotic is to be religious and vice versa.  This picture, in all its technical and compositional beauty, is a nightmare.

Note some of the comments.  Especially the last one which, I can only hope, is satire. Other than "sobering," the rest of these comments strike me as something straight out of an SNL skit.  

Hooah, indeed.

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And, since I have you right there on religion, let's talk about parents who use religion as a bludgeon to guilt, condemn, and terrorize a gay child, all under the guise of loving support and . . . garbage.  Here, read this:

Just Because He Breathes

My 15 year old said he doesn't pity this woman, but I do.  I pity her the same way I pity anyone who does awful, stupid things and later comes to regret them, but not in time to stave off tragedy.  But the sad reality is that this boy had every ounce of self-love, self-confidence, joy, self-acceptance, and surety of love bludgeoned out of him by Bible-wielding parents.  Reason 5,678 why mythology sucks.

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And now, speaking of crappy things parents do to their kids?  If you name your child "Whiskey Chance," (that's first and middle), don't be surprised when he winds up in jail.  Seriously, are you stupid?  How did you THINK that was going to turn out?

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And that's it for today.  Here, have something visually stimulating:

Oh, and I apologize for the crappy formatting here today.  Sometimes Blogger just decides to go with its gut feelings and disregard any pesky alignment decisions I make.  Can't wait to see what it's done with the font.  

Life's Funny

A year-and-a-half ago, I posted about how my degree, which I had come so close to attaining, had wound up splattered across the dashboard of my '71 Mustang. I had spent so many years accepting that I would never be granted my degree, and then decided to go for it. Sure I had been thwarted, I posted a blog entry detailing my misery.

Well, I got my degree.

That's right--after scrounging about for records verifying my "story," I submitted a formal appeal and was granted my degree. My wonderful husband threw a party for me, and my degree is now hanging on the wall in a nice frame. I am degreed. I are, in fact, edumacated.

I forget that. Often. I'll be sitting in bed, being carried along on a wave of disappointment and despair over my lack of degree when, suddenly, I'll remember! Hey, I DID succeed there!

I'm in the process of losing weight. A lot of weight. My hope? That I'll lose enough that my vicious social phobia will ease and I'll maybe even get myself a part-time job. Don't call me silly for being afraid--read the news, read the research. Heavy women are routinely denied employment, and when they are hired, they're paid less and fired first. Anyone who says different has never been an overweight woman.

In a totally different direction, our months-long quest for new furniture we can't really afford is finally approaching its end. The amazing, wowser, super-chair and ottoman from the Land of Fancitude has come, and it truly is a wonder to behold (our friend Joe said, "That's no ottoman--that's the Ottoman EMPIRE!". It wasn't the chair/ottoman set we'd wanted--that chair, after months of hope and BS, never did come. So we ordered from someone else. More money, but hey, they actually GOT the furniture to us. The sofa and second chair are en route (that's on rooooot, not IN ROWT), and should be here in a week or so. Sleeper sofa, here we come!

Of course, the new furniture has us panicked--my Mother's got to come over SOME time, right? And what are we going to do when she decides she wants to sit on our nice, new furniture? Her running sores and total lack of hygiene completely destroyed her new furniture in the space of a few weeks. What do we do? There's no good way for that to turn out. I guess we drape blankets over the whole mess and hope?

Or maybe we move? That's what I'm hoping for. Tommy's got applications in for positions in DC, and gosh, wouldn't that be amazing? No, it's not Pennsylvania, but it's mighty close, and it will certainly do in a pinch. Oh, please, oh, please, oh, please!

My Education on the Dashboard

I’m having a terribly sad day. Terribly sad of the “sit in front of the computer and cry my stupid eyes out” variety. It’s made all the worse because I should have known. You’d think I was stupid er sumpthin’.

Back in the summer of '93, I was all set to graduate from Weber. I had my generals filled, my major filled, thought I owed one class on my minor. Took the National CLEP to fill my English requirements, and life was good.

But. Always one of those, right?

Because I was planning to register for that one course come fall quarter, I decided to wait on filing my CLEP certificate with the Records Office.

Stupid me.

Two weeks after receiving my CLEP certificate in the mail, I was in a wowser car accident. The kind of accident where the police don’t put a neat little “x” on the damage sticker, but rather scribble off the entire front end of the car. I suffered substantial facial fractures, deep tissue bleeding in the hips and belly (seat belt), a lasting back injury, and, most importantly, a traumatic brain injury.

At the same time, my then-husband left the country, leaving me buried under an avalanche of unpaid debts I hadn’t even known existed. Oh, and my boss fired me—apparently the Frankenstein-like black stitching all over my face was “scaring the customers.”

So there I was. Dain bramaged, maimed, jobless, spouseless, and being sued from all sides by my then-estranged husband’s creditors.

By the time the mental fog cleared (somewhat—those who know me well know I never was the same), I was in serious arrears with UHEAA. Yes, I filed a deferment. Who knows to whom I actually MAILED the request? Considering I sent Columbia House my five hundred dollar Citgo payment, the deferment request could have gone just about anywhere. "Addled" doesn't even begin to describe what a mess I was in the months after the accident.

Obviously, no student aid meant no tuition at that point. No tuition meant no degree. At some point I tucked my bright pink CLEP certificate into an envelope and slid it into a folder. A folder marked, apparently, “Space this off for a decade or more, Dain Bramage Girl.”

Fast forward to 2010. I’m moving out of state. I’m 44 years old. There are things I would like to do someday that can only be done with that degree. So I’ve spent the past few days on the phone. Turns out that one class I thought I needed? I didn’t. In fact, all I needed to do was check off with my advisors and file that CLEP certificate and I had graduation sussed. I earned my degree in FULL.

But.

Weber State’s Records Office tells me they won’t recognize my CLEP certificate. They’ve changed the crediting system, and the certificate isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. Never mind I paid for the test AND took it TWICE as part of a study focused on the implementation of computers in CLEP administration. That’s right—I took it twice. Once in pencil, once on computer. And it means nothing. I suppose I could retake the CLEP for English, but these days you can’t clear your English Requirement with a CLEP. I know, I asked.

I’m still making calls. I’m still dropping emails. Arts and Humanities, Child and Family, Psychology, English, Records, Graduation, Academic Advisement—I’ve had all of them on the phone over the past couple of days, and the wonderful folks I’ve spoken to have been as helpful as they can be. But I’m so discouraged, and so angry at myself for being stupid enough to get my hopes up. Had I not let a friend wrap me and my car around a tree at 60 mph en route to Arby's, I’d have that degree.

To sum it up? I appear to have traded a BS for a roast beef sandwich from Arby’s. What really sucks? I didn't even get to EAT the sandwich; I found it festering under the driver's seat a few weeks post-accident. Maybe if it had been a really good sandwich, the very BEST sandwich I'd ever had, it wouldn't sting so much.

Boy, don’t I feel utterly stupid?