Prof.Churchill has new competition
How the hell do these assholes become teachers? And why are the administrators so gutless? :mad: NU rips Holocaust denial
President calls prof an embarrassment but plans no penalty
By Jodi S. Cohen
Tribune higher education reporter
Published February 7, 2006
Northwestern University President Henry Bienen said Monday that a professor's recent comments denying that the Holocaust happened are "a contemptible insult to all decent and feeling people" and an embarrassment to the university.
Bienen commented days after tenured engineering professor Arthur Butz commented in the Tribune and in the Iranian press that he agreed with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's assertions that the Holocaust is a myth.
Iran's semi-official Mehr News Agency and the English-language Tehran Times have published Butz's comments, promoting the Northwestern professor as one of the world scholars who support the Iranian president. Ahmadinejad, who also has called for Israel to be "wiped off the map," recently ordered the restart of uranium enrichment, raising fears that Tehran could try to build a nuclear weapon.
Butz's comments did not address the Iranian president's statements about present-day Israel or nuclear issues.
"While I hope everyone understands that Butz's opinions are his own and in no way represent the views of the university or me personally, his reprehensible opinions on this issue are an embarrassment to Northwestern," Bienen said in a statement to be e-mailed Monday night to all Northwestern students, faculty and staff.
Northwestern's chapter of Hillel, the Jewish student organization, purchased a full-page advertisement, to be published Tuesday in the Daily Northwestern student newspaper. Hillel also called for a community meeting Tuesday night to address the topic: "Why does the Holocaust matter? How do we ensure that `never again' means never again?"
"We're frustrated because we feel forced to take action, but we don't want to dignify his lunacy with a response," the ad says.
Butz, a tenured Northwestern professor since 1974, is known for denying that the Nazis killed 6 million Jews during World War II. He promotes his views through his Northwestern-affiliated Web site, including a link to his 1976 book, "The Hoax of the 20th Century: The Case Against the Presumed Extermination of European Jewry."
Butz told the Tribune last week that he e-mailed comments to the Mehr News Agency after he was approached by an Iranian journalist.
Butz wrote that the Holocaust didn't happen, that it is a "deliberately contrived falsehood" and that its promulgation was motivated by the desire to create a Jewish state in the Middle East. About Ahmadinejad, he wrote: "I congratulate him on becoming the first head of state to speak out clearly on these issues and regret only that it was not a Western head of state."
He posted the same comments on his Web site.
Northwestern sophomore Stuart Loren, a history major from Highland Park, commended Bienen's response but said it wasn't enough. He wants the university to revoke Butz's university-provided Web site.
"This is so historically inaccurate and so biased that I think the university might need to do something more than a passive approach," Loren said. "The fact that he uses Northwestern as a forum to convey his views, that is where I get upset."
Bienen said in his statement that Butz is entitled to express his personal views, and the university will not take action against him as long as he represents them as his own and does not discuss them in class. He also noted that the university has a professorship in Holocaust studies and offers several courses on the Holocaust.
Butz did not return a call for comment Monday afternoon.
Adam Simon, Hillel's executive director at Northwestern, said he has fielded many calls from students, faculty and alumni upset by Butz's comments.
"There are two ways to respond: ignore it or convert it into something positive," Simon said. "Engaging in a conversation about whether the Holocaust happened is a waste of time. ... We are setting a different tone. We are going to talk about why it is important to remember the Holocaust."
