On August 26, 2004, Mr. Ford met with Professor Wetchler, as Wetchler had requested via e-mail (see Parts I, II, III, and IV of this series for background information). At the outset of the meeting, Wetchler stated that he was representing all of the program faculty members when he said: “You’re not in trouble. This is an opportunity for you to make changes because we are extremely concerned about your behavior.”
The behavior to which Professor Wetchler referred was Mr. Ford’s letter to the editor regarding “same-sex marriage,” which he had written under the full protection of the First Amendment. Nonetheless, Wetchler continued by explaining exactly why the faculty was concerned about Mr. Ford’s letter to the editor: “If someone were to recognize your name, it might misrepresent the clinic, simply by your name.” He explained that the faculty wanted him “to stay underground, because we are worried about you being a therapist and hurting a lot of people with this type of article.”
Professor Wetchler elaborated on why such a letter to the editor might hurt people: “You are creating a hostile environment for the program, clients, and students.” Wetchler tried to argue that Mr. Ford had misquoted articles and misrepresented data in his letter but Mr. Ford declined to discuss the contents of the letter, instead saying: “It is simply an expression of my faith tradition which my religious doctrine compels me to speak out.”
Of course, Professor Wetchler did not see it that way. He said: “This is not about religion or First Amendment rights. It is about hurting people. And you hurt a lot of people. Students have read the article, other faculty in the department have read the article (not that we are passing it around) and you have hurt people.” Wetchler mentioned that Mr. Ford had “hurt people” at least seven times and repeatedly pressed for an apology. But Mr. Ford refused to deny his God in order to appease his professor.
Professor Wetchler next commented that faculty members were concerned about what Mr. Ford would teach regarding single parent families, children of divorced parents, and sexual identity as he was scheduled to teach Introductory Psychology and Adolescent Development in the upcoming semester. Mr. Ford responded: “I adhere strictly to the curriculum which I am given, and if it is necessary, I can provide my lectures for review.”
Professor Wetchler then told Mr. Ford he was “The most beloved student until three or four months ago. Now the faculty are enraged with you. None of the faculty, at this point, feel like they could write you a letter of recommendation unless you stop your aggressive behavior around LGBT issues and stop creating a hostile environment.”
It sounded very much like a threat. Indeed, Mr. Ford was being confronted with a choice between following his God and following his career. Indeed, for a marriage and family therapist, a doctoral degree is essentially a professional requirement. To get into a doctoral program, Mr. Ford needed several letters of recommendation – letters he had planned to get from the professors who once loved him.
As the conversation continued, Professor Wetchler went on to declare that Mr. Ford’s “religious beliefs create a hostile environment.” Wetchler then demanded that Mr. Ford make several behavior changes. First, he demanded that Mr. Ford “come directly to people.” Second, he demanded that Mr. Ford “stop intimidating faculty.” Third, he demanded that Mr. Ford “work with Kent Pierce on lectures dealing with single parents, children of divorce, and sexual identity for the classes you teach.”
After this, Professor Wetchler requested permission to ask Mr. Ford a personal question. After receiving this permission, he asked: “Why are you so interested in LGBT issues? For a guy as sensitive as you are, you are insensitive in this area.” Mr. Ford responded that this was merely one of many areas in which he had developed a professional interest. Others included such topics as parenting and marital relations. Wetchler responded, “Yeah, but why LGBT?”
At this point, Mr. Ford responded: “What are you getting at?” Professor Wetchler started to talk about how much Mr. Ford had hurt his feelings, how Mr. Ford was insensitive to his feelings when Mr. Ford wanted to explore issues surrounding homosexual conduct, and how much Mr. Ford’s conduct and positions hurt him.
Professor Wetchler concluded the meeting— one which had lasted nearly two hours—by telling Mr. Ford: “You are liked, but you are not beloved.” Wetchler also asked if he could review Mr. Ford’s notes from the meeting, a request which Mr. Ford obliged. After reviewing them, Wetchler nodded in agreement to what was written. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Ford met with Mr. Ken Pierce, as Professor Wetchler had instructed.
Mr. Pierce and Wetchler then decided that Mr. Ford should submit his class materials to Ms. Ann Edwards, an openly practicing lesbian, in order to determine if they were suitable. When Mr. Ford met with her in October, he described his classroom techniques. She responded by saying: “Wow, you sound as sensitive as they come.” She repeatedly assured him that he was being as sensitive and tolerant as she could imagine.
Nonetheless, as late as August 2005, the professors repeated their threats not to write letters of recommendation on Mr. Ford’s behalf. In Mr. Ford’s clinical work, many of his professors also served as his supervisors. Frequently, they would note his improvement, mention the letters of recommendation issue, and then say, “You’re not out of the woods yet.”
Then, one summer day, Professor Hecker was bored and had nothing to do. So she passed along a copy of Mr. Ford’s letter to the editor to Ms. Duffy-Greslo. Though she and Mr. Ford had been friends, she gave him an ultimatum: he must change his religious beliefs or she would no longer be his friend.
Could it be that certain faculty members at Purdue University Calumet were trying to destroy this man’s career in the long-term and make him friendless and miserable in the short-term? It all would have been so much simpler had he abandoned his religious beliefs in deference to the wisdom of the professoriate.
But Mr. Ford held firmly to his beliefs. And his story continues next [column].
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Mike S. Adams was born in Columbus, Mississippi on October 30, 1964. While a student at Clear Lake High School in Houston, TX, his team won the state 5A soccer championship. Mike Adams graduated from C.L.H.S. in 1983 with a 1.8 GPA. Mike Adams was ranked 734 among a class of 740, largely as a result of flunking English all four years of high school. After obtaining an Associate's degree in psychology from San Jacinto College, Mike Adams moved on to Mississippi State University where he joined the Sigma Chi Fraternity. While living in the fraternity house, his GPA rose to 3.4, allowing him to finish his B.A., and then to pursue a Master's in Psychology. In 1990, Mike Adams turned down a chance to pursue a PhD in psychology from the University of Georgia, opting instead to remain at Mississippi State to study Sociology/Criminology. This decision was made entirely on the basis of his reluctance to quit his night job as member of a musical duo. Playing music in bars and at fraternity parties and weddings financed his education. Mike Adams also played for free beer.
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Upon getting his doctorate in 1993, Adams, then an atheist and a Democrat, was hired by UNC-Wilmington to teach in the criminal justice program. A few years later, Adams abandoned his atheism and also became a Republican. He also nearly abandoned teaching when he took a one-year leave of absence to study law at UNC-Chapel Hill in 1998. After returning to teach at UNC-Wilmington, Adams won the Faculty Member of the Year award (issued by the Office of the Dean of Students) for the second time in 2000.
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After his involvement in a well publicized free speech controversy in the wake of the 911 terror attacks, Adams became a vocal critic of the diversity movement in academia. After making appearances on shows like Hannity and Colmes, the O'Reilly Factor, and Scarborough Country, Adams was asked to write a column for Townhall.com.
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Today Mike Adams enjoys the privilege of expressing himself both as a teacher and a writer. Mike Adams is also an avid hunter and reader of classic literature. Mike Adams published his first book, Welcome to the Ivory Tower of Babel, in 2004. His second book, Feminists Say the Darndest Things: A Politically Incorrect Professor Confronts "Womyn" On Campus, was published in 2008.
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