"They have put into place a political culture that is educationally corrupt and operates by bureaucratic tyrannies one associates with Stalinism and anti-utopian novels like 1984," according to the professors.

They say it is typical of what is happening at all of the state colleges in Massachusetts.

Massachusetts News
By Edward G. Oliver

February 1--The problems at the state colleges came into public awareness after a popular English professor, Dr. Eugene Narrett, was dismissed in 1997 because of what many believe were his conservative political beliefs. He is now a lecturer at Boston University.

He is currently suing the school, as well as its former president, Raymond Kieft, and the former chairman of the English department, Alan Feldman, for violating his free speech rights. He taught at the college for four-and-a-half years. 

Interestingly, the ACLU is helping with the lawsuit, but only on condition that Narrett does not sue the teachers union, according to him and others familiar with the case.

Free Speech Is Not Allowed

Narrett began teaching at FSC in the spring of 1993. However, he kept his political beliefs very quiet until he began writing in off-campus newspapers and magazines after a year-and-a-half. The reprisal was worse than he expected. "The extent of self-censorship in academia may be one of the biggest untold stories of our time," he says.

A former colleague of Narrett, who wishes to remain anonymous even though he is chairman of a department, shares that view. He explained to Massachusetts News. 

"I tell people who are non-tenured: If you’re a conservative person, you might as well assume you’re giving up your first amendment rights for six years. If you don’t play on the right team politically, then you could very well be out of here. Eugene was told he would have the first tenured position that became available. Eugene, though, was not the type to stay quiet long; he had to speak his mind. He did so in the newspapers and I think he paid the price."

Attacked for Political Views

Biology Professor Joe Previte, who taught at the school for 30 years, says Narrett was unfairly attacked for his political views. He says many, especially those without tenure, will not speak up at Framingham State because they feel intimidated and are concerned about their jobs, promotions, etc.

Narrett recalls various instances that he says would disturb anyone.

• A colleague told him about a debate he overheard in a geography class where the following comments were made. "Catholics are stupid. They don’t know how to reason. They let the Pope do all their thinking for them." When the colleague complained about the bigoted discussion to the professor, he was told to mind his business and the school administration did not pursue the matter. 

• Narrett overheard a female student in an adjoining office expressing her concern to Professor Mary Murphy about the way men in her class feel attacked and hurt. Murphy treated the young woman’s concern with contempt and ushered her out saying, "You must have a headache dear. I’m sorry you’re not feeling well. I hope you’ll feel better soon." 

• On another occasion, he heard a conversation between the tenured female professor he shared his office with and the head of the campus teachers union. His female colleague referred to a staff member she disagreed with as "a piece of human flotsam, a worthless white man!" Narrett says the former colleague is now head of the College Curriculum Committee and sat on the English Department Hiring Committee.

Pressured to Fire Narrett

The former chair of the English department, Alan Feldman, tells Massachusetts News that he was pressured to fire Narrett. He says he was the only person who made the decision not to rehire Narrett. He claims, however, that the fact that Narrett aroused a lot of anger because of his non-leftist views was not a factor in his decision. "In retrospect, I wish there had been a committee to decide this and I didn’t have the responsibility to decide this entirely myself. If there had been some kind of committee, there would be minutes and some sort of due process. In making the decision entirely by myself I opened myself to the charges that I acted out of some kind of bias."

Feldman acknowledged that the second public meeting Narrett attended after an anonymous leafleting incident against him had degenerated into a bitter discussion and hard feelings between Narrett and his colleagues over Narrett’s political views and writings. He also says it is probably true that it is better not to be outspoken in your political views if you do not have tenure.

When asked a second time if the political turmoil surrounding Narrett was a factor in his not being rehired, Feldman revealed that indeed faculty were pressuring him to fire Narrett because of his writings, although he says that didn’t influence him. "There were many things that were factors that led up to what happened. I think if anything, people coming to me and saying, ‘Did you read what he wrote in the paper? Isn’t that awful? You have to get rid of this person.’ That only made me feel as though he had to stay." 

The president of the college, Helen Heineman, told Massachusetts News, "It’s their own business" if teachers write newspaper articles off-campus. She denied there is pressure to conform to a particular worldview at the school and says she was not aware of any hostility at the college over Narrett’s opinions. "This is an academic community. In an academic community, people always have different opinions. You’re never going to find everybody with the same opinions, so you have to tolerate other people’s opinions."

The president denied any knowledge of Narrett’s court case although the college is being sued and she was Vice President of Academic Affairs at the time of Narrett’s shunning. Narrett says Heineman attended the first public meeting where his political views were attacked so she knew about the leafleting against him. He claims Feldman and Heineman were "as close as two peas in a pod" and he says there is no way she could deny knowledge of what went on. He believes Feldman may be taking sole responsibility for firing him to protect the college president.

How the Firing Took Place

Why was such a well-respected and gifted teacher given the axe? Whether his termination was justified or not, his travails served to expose a disturbing culture of political correctness at Framingham State College that may adversely impact a student’s education.

Narrett says now that he’s gone, "They have a perfectly correct English department with 26 leftists." 

The reason the school gave for not renewing his contract was that Narrett wanted to back out of teaching a course at the last minute. Narrett says that was a convenient pretext, considering all the controversy surrounding him. He was willing to teach the class until a replacement could be found and the changing of a professor’s schedule was routine, he says.

The former colleague who requested anonymity and is a longtime chair of a different department tells Massachusetts News that Narrett’s teaching evaluations were "superb" and "almost lyrical" in praise of his abilities. 

According to him, Narrett was popular with his students as well. He says Narrett was threatened by Mary Murphy, an influential, tenured professor in the English department who, he says, is an "old-line feminist." "She is definitely a feminist, almost hitting you over the head with it," says the professor. Murphy participated in tenure and hiring decisions for the English department.

The professor says Murphy approached Narrett in March of 1995 because of something Narrett wrote which was critical of the feminist agenda. Narrett remembers and says that Murphy told him flat-out to stop writing columns criticizing feminism, "for his own good." 

Narrett says Murphy herself illustrates how education can be politicized. He says Murphy taught in the English department since the 1970’s and was a Democratic operative in the McGovern and Dukakis campaigns. "When she came up for promotion and tenure about 1984, her lack of a Ph.D. and the gross sloppiness with which she presented her dossier, led to her being unanimously rejected. Then President of the College, Paul Weller, reconvened the Committee and ordered them to promote Murphy. They refused and he put through the promotion himself. Members of the Committee resigned but this honorable gesture on behalf of academic standards was futile. Politics trump excellence."

According to Narrett, about a week after Murphy ordered him to stop skewering feminism in his off-campus writings, leaflets were widely posted in buildings on campus attacking Narrett and twisting his opinions. The leaflets proclaimed, 

"PROFESSOR EUGENE NARRETT’S DIAGNOSIS: HIS WIFE, A CAREER WOMAN MUST HAVE LEFT HIM FOR A FEMALE LOVER & THEY RAN AWAY WITH HIS KIDS. This must be the only explanation why he would be writing articles about men having custody of their children, attacks on gays & lesbians, single mothers who seek a career rather than staying at home and being a misogynist. IF NARRETT IS IN FAVOR OF FREE SPEECH, HERE IT IS!! LONG LIVE FRAMINGHAM STATE COLLEGE WOMEN!!!"

Narrett says he received no help from the school’s "Officer for Diversity and Human Rights" which was supposed to investigate, report on and call for punishment.

After the leaflet incident, he says he experienced a two-year period of shunning and hostility from his colleagues. He was shouted at in the faculty dining room because of a critical column he wrote about Bill Clinton, he was choked by a professor from the history department and a colleague continually stalked back and forth outside his classroom. He says he received virtually no assistance from the teachers union with his grievance against Murphy except being offered a small cash "take it or leave it" settlement that would have required him to surrender all rights to discuss what had happened to him.

Murphy did not return calls from Massachusetts News seeking comment.

Narrett experienced adverse changes in his title, course assignments and working conditions after he refused to desist expressing his opinions. He says he was transferred from his office to the equivalent of a broom closet with no phone or computer access.

Radicals Take Charge

A brief perusal of the archives of the school newspaper, The Gatepost, reveals two interesting items from the time Narrett was at the school which support his claim about the political atmosphere at the school. An article published on March 7, 1997, titled "Mary Daly’s Radical Feminism," informed readers about a "powerful lecture" the former Boston College professor gave on women living in the 90’s. She said her life as a radical feminist was symbolized by "four spiral galaxies." She explained to students the ways women are kept "under control" and spoke about the position of women in a "patriarchal society." Two of her books are titled, Beyond God the Father and Gyn/Ecology in which Daly devotes several pages to the hidden, sexually oppressive meaning behind the name of the Apollo lunar landing program.

The Gatepost however wrote a separate editorial two weeks later on March 28, taking Daly to task for refusing to be photographed or taped at the publicly sponsored lecture. The Gatepost was annoyed enough in this second article to reveal Daly was paid a speaker’s fee of $3500 of public money, and the paper called for future speaking contracts to comply with the first amendment.

Narrett recalled for Massachusetts News that at the time Daly was lecturing on radical feminism for $3500, he had arranged, after a lot of work and personal contacts, to book the Haldener Chamber Choir that was touring the Northeast to come to the school and perform for only $700. The Choir would perform Bach, Mendelssohn, and other classics. With the group would be a distinguished author and Ph.D. who would lecture about the development of classical music into twentieth century music. He says the arrangement was withdrawn at the last minute by the school which instead put the Boston Globe columnist Patricia Smith into the Chamber Choir’s open spot for later that year. Patricia Smith was later fired from the Globe after she was exposed for fabricating and quoting fictitious characters in her columns. 

"That’s a real window on what their priority is," says Narrett. "The students were robbed of a chance to hear a professional European chorus. They don’t even get a gym. Instead, the school spends $3500 on a lawbreaking, lesbian, sexist, crackpot theosophist like Mary Daly who didn’t let men into her classes for 25 years." He says Daly was kicked out of Boston College last fall after a male student sued because she wouldn’t allow men into her classes. Narrett added "The school also paid Maya Angelou $17,000 in 1994 to read her poetry and praise herself and Bill Clinton."

The problem with many people who are politically correct is that they don’t tolerate diversity, says Previte. He attended an unprecedented public meeting at the school in 1995 where he observed faculty attacking Narrett for his political views at the same time Narrett’s students overwhelmingly spoke in his support. Previte was shocked by what he witnessed and personally tried to help Narrett by pleading with faculty and the chairman of the department, Alan Feldman.

Narrett says he was later asked by Feldman to attend a second meeting, which by all accounts was stacked against him, with only hostile faculty in attendance, including members of the hiring committee attacking his views on multi-culturalism and homosexuality. Narrett says he was shouted down at the second meeting whenever he tried to speak. 

Previte says academic politics at the school has gotten steadily worse. He says if you’re not politically correct but are outspoken, you have some real problems. He did speak up for Narrett however, but says without tenure and doing his job well, he would have been gone himself. Previte says without tenure, a lot of people would be gone and the school would have robots following the party line. He found it interesting that the fellow who replaced Narrett later announced in the school newspaper that he was "coming out" to proclaim he was gay and proud of it. Previte says the teachers union does not really stand up and fight for someone like Narrett because he’s a conservative.

Massachusetts News asked Previte to explain where the campus politics comes from. He explained it originates with liberals in Washington and is implemented through federal monies and guidelines, adding it is not much different than what is in the public school system. He says the effect is in the kinds of courses that are given approval which have politically correct overtones, the kinds of decisions that are made in committees, etc. He says students are still getting an education but the question is would they be getting a better education if it weren’t biased that way. He framed it as "fundamental" education verses a "feel good" education.

Narrett’s office space was given to a "Professor of Diversity" that he described as a "black lesbian Buddhist nun." In an interview in the November 8, 1996 Gatepost, Faith Adiele, the "Diversity Professor" said she wanted to open up her classroom to bisexual, gay and lesbian students as a safe space to come and talk about things openly. She said her philosophy was influenced by Paulo Freire’s, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, "… In my class, I’m really trying to have the students be actively involved in educating themselves and each other and deciding what it is they really want or really need to know. I don’t want a sort of passive, hierarchical model where I have information and I implant it in manageable chunks and the students sit there passively and soak it up." The Professor of Diversity came from Harvard where she ran a "Multiculturalism Student Activism Center" and directed women’s mentoring programs.

A former colleague commented to Narrett in 1997, "We just put through someone for promotion to senior faculty on a waiver because they don’t have a Ph.D. What kind of publication credentials do they have? Would you believe, Cheerleading Today magazine?"
 

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