"Final Solution" was the ugly term used to describe how the Nazis wanted to kill all Jews during the Second World War. They succeeded in murdering a lot of my relatives before they were stopped.
The College of DuPage, in suburban Chicago, was offering a class entitled "Final Solution," but that class has now been canceled, subsequent to an inquiry that I lodged with the school. I reported on that inquiry in the February 17th edition of Liberal News.
Supporters
bring you Rob Sherman Advocacy.
Click here to join them.
This is the second time in three weeks that the College of DuPage has canceled a course after I raised a question about the academic integrity and scholarly impartiality of one of their proposed classes. Last month, COD canceled a proposed class that was entitled, "Significant Atheists." The class was really about ridiculing and finding fault with significant atheists. I reported on my complaint about that proposed class in the February 11th edition of Liberal News, and I reported on the cancellation of that class in the February 13th edition of Liberal News.
The instructor of both classes, Kanan Rosenstein, is reputed to be an activist for Messianic Judaism. A Messianic Jew is a person who was born Jewish, but believes that the fictional biblical character Jesus was the mythical Messiah. A person certainly has a right to believe that some guy named Jesus is the son of a make-believe deity-parent called God. He also has the right to promote that belief, but not at taxpayer expense. When a person is committed to proselytizing a particular religious belief in any and every forum which he can create for himself, you have to wonder about the fitness of such a person to create an impartial curriculum about people that he strongly believes are very wrong about everything and teach such a course impartially, particularly at a taxpayer-funded public college.
After I contacted the school about the two classes, the Dean of Liberal Arts, Ed Storke, reviewed the two classes and made prompt decisions that the two classes should not be offered.
Our constitutional system of government contains a mechanism for engaging in checks and balances on government action. That mechanism is the last portion of the First Amendment, which guarantees citizens the right to seek a redress of grievances from government. Unfortunately, many government officials build a cocoon around themselves to insulate themselves, to the greatest extent possible, from the public to prevent the public from raising questions about their actions. Other government officials respond to questions about their decisions by engaging in the politics of personal destruction. They try to deflect criticism by personally attacking the person who raises questions about their government policies.
Dean Ed Storke is an excellent example of good government. Instead of getting defensive, Mr. Storke considered my inquiries on the merits. He made a prompt determination about the issues that I had raised, and took action to resolve the matters expeditiously.
I encourage other government officials to follow Dr. Storke's fine example. You don't always have to agree with me, or with others who exercise their First Amendment rights. What is wanted is a prompt review with integrity, a prompt decision on the merits and then prompt action to implement whatever decision has been made, just like Ed Storke did. Too many times, however, other government officials respond with personal attacks or stalling tactics in a feeble attempt to defend policy, just to obstruct change and maintain the current policy, without regard to whether the policy is good or bad.
In a story published in today's Daily Herald, COD spokesman Bill Troller says that there is a review process for new courses, but, somehow, these two courses didn't go through that process. Obviously, the reason that Rosenstein didn't put his courses through that process is that he knew the college would have found that the classes were not Kosher.
Here is a link to the story in the electronic edition of the Daily Herald. In case the above link expires before you read this edition of Liberal News, the electronic edition of the Daily Herald story (which sometimes varies in length from the print edition) is reproduced below in its entirety for library/archive purposes.
COD says atheist, Holocaust classes slipped through system
By Catherine Edman Daily Herald Staff Writer
A recently cancelled College of DuPage class on atheists and another
on the Holocaust slipped through a crack in the school's review system.
Neither the course description nor the content of the class on atheists
was reviewed by faculty members or administrators before being added
to the lineup, as called for in school policy, COD spokesman Bill
Troller said Wednesday.
And while officials with the Glen Ellyn college have invited the
instructor to submit the courses for consideration in the fall, part-time
faculty member Kanan Rosenstein said he's trying to have both courses
fully reinstated this spring.
Rosenstein's class, "Significant Atheists," was cancelled after
someone raised a question about its content. Robert Sherman, of National
Atheists, also complained that the class presented atheists in a negative
light, though Rosenstein said he intended a thorough, unbiased analysis
of the men's impacts on society.
Officials said they had questions about some of the factual content
of the class.
A second Rosenstein class, "Final Solution," then was placed on
review and subsequently cancelled after questions were raised about
it, Troller said.
Associate Liberal Arts Dean Ed Storke "felt he really needed to
revisit the course descriptions, which he felt were poorly put together,
and to revisit the curriculum," Troller said.
Liberal arts classes that carry course credits go through a curriculum
review committee composed of Storke, other faculty members and administrators.
The group meets with the instructor, discusses curriculum, content
and direction and works out any areas of concern with the teacher
before the class is made available to students.
Because the two classes were included in the Older Adults Institute,
which offers both credit and non-credit classes, rather than in the
general liberal arts listing, they didn't go through that process.
However, they still should have been reviewed because they were
new courses and carried three class credits, Troller said. For some
reason, that didn't happen, he added.
The college is double-checking its process to make sure other new
classes are being reviewed, Troller said.
Officials said Rosenstein still could teach the "Final Solution"
Holocaust course during the spring quarter if he changed it to a non-credit
class. He also could submit both courses for review as three-credit
classes for the fall quarter.
Rosenstein said he's trying to have both classes restored as spring
courses for credit, while also trying to have them both included in
the spring lineup as non-credit classes.
Rob Sherman P. O. Box
7410
Buffalo Grove, IL 60089-7410
A post office box is used
because
the street address uses a curb mail box,
which is not secure.
Telephone: (847) 870-0700
Fax: (847) 870-1156
E-mail: rob followed by the at symbol followed by robsherman dot com