FYI... Stefanie Rixecker ECOFEM Coordinator ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sat, 31 Jul 1999 17:32:31 -0500 Date: Fri, 30 Jul 1999 19:03:18 -0500 From: "Paula C. Barnes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Action needed: the de-tenuring of Mary Daly To anyone interested in feminism, women's studies, and/or academic freedom: Mary Daly, pioneering feminist theorist and theologian and author of the groundbreaking book _Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism_, has, in effect, been "de-tenured" at Boston College. According to an editorial in the most recent issue of The Nation ( Laura Flanders, "Feminist De-tenured," July 26/August 6, 1999 issue, pp. 5-6), Daly has been teaching a course at BC, Introduction to Feminist Ethics, for the past 25 years to women only, in order to promote a safe space to discuss such issues as violence against women. A male student who wished to register for the course and who ignored Daly's offer to teach him outside the women's class (something she has done for the past dozen years) threatened, with the backing of the Center for Individual Rights, an organization that led attacks on affirmative action at the universities of Texas and Michigan, to sue BC under Title IX antidiscrimination provisions. The intimidation worked and BC canceled Daly's courses for the upcoming academic year. BC claims that Daly resigned voluntarily, a claim she denies, and is no longer a faculty member. They have also denied her access to the university's grievance procedure. Daly is fighting Boston College's actions and has filed complaints of breach-of-contract and violation of tenure rights. Daly is a scholar who put feminist theology and feminist ethics on the academic and political map and deserves the support of all who care about women's studies in the academy, about academic freedom, and about protecting the real purposes of Title IX. The Mary Daly Defense Fund can be reached at: P.O. Box 381176 Cambridge, MA 02238-1176 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Letters to Boston College in defense of Mary Daly can be sent to: Pres. William P. Leahy, SJ Boston College Botolph House Chestnut Hill, MA 02467-3934 If you do write a letter, please forward a copy to the Defense Fund as well. Please pass this message on to others. Jane Rothstein, Ph.D. Candidate Department of History and Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies New York University [EMAIL PROTECTED] ************************************ Dr. Stefanie S. Rixecker Division of Environmental Management & Design Lincoln University, Canterbury PO Box 84 Aotearoa New Zealand E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fax: 64-03-325-3841 ************************************
