UCC Treats Evolution As Harassment?

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Saturday May 15, 2010 09:11

by Greg Lukianoff - Huffington Post

"The love that dare not speak its name"

Evolutionary scientist Dylan Evans at UCC has been disciplined for showing an article on sex in fruit bats to a colleague in the context of a debate on human exceptionalism. Supporters of the campaign to reverse this include Steven Pinker, Richard Dawkins and others.

I had heard of "the love that dare not speak its name," but I had no idea it referred to the sexual habits of fruit bats. According to a professor at University College Cork in Ireland, however, sharing a peer-reviewed article about observed oral sex among fruit bats with colleagues was enough to get him put on double secret probation.

Printed below in its entirety is a letter from the censured professor, Dr. Dylan Evans, explaining what happened and asking people to join a petition protesting his ludicrously unjust punishment. (Hat tip to Steven Pinker of Harvard for forwarding this along.)

Subject: Please help me fight the sanctions imposed on me by University College Cork

Dear Colleagues,

The President of University College Cork, Professor Michael Murphy, has imposed harsh sanctions on me for doing nothing more than showing an article from a peer-reviewed scientific article to a colleague.

The article was about fellatio in fruit bats. You can read it online at http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal...07595

It was covered extensively in the media, including the Guardian - see http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/nov/10/oral-se...earch

The colleague to whom I showed the article complained to HR that the article was upsetting. I had been engaged in an ongoing debate with the colleague in question about the relevance of evolutionary biology to human behaviour, and in particular about the dubiousness of many claims for human uniqueness. I showed it the colleague in the context of this discussion, and in the presence of a third person. I also showed the article to over a dozen other colleagues on the same day, none of whom objected.

HR launched a formal investigation. Despite the fact that external investigators concluded that I was not guilty of harassment, Professor Murphy has imposed a two-year period of intensive monitoring and counselling on me, and as a result my application for tenure is likely to be denied.

I am now campaigning to have the sanctions lifted. I would be grateful for your support on this matter. I have created an online petition at:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/freedebate/

I'd be grateful if you sign the petition and ask your colleagues to do so. If you also felt like writing directly to the President of UCC, his address is:

Professor Michael Murphy
The President's Office
University College Cork
Cork
Republic of Ireland.

Your support would be greatly appreciated.

Dylan Evans
----------------------------------------------
Dr. Dylan Evans
Lecturer in Behavioural Science
School of Medicine
University College Cork,
Cork, Ireland.

Anyone who has read previous entries of mine here on The Huffington Post already knows that even the most inadvertent offense can lead to students and faculty members being charged and often found guilty of various campus crimes. (Do I need to mention again the student punished for "openly" reading a book?)

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