Inside Higher Education is now reporting on the behavior of Wallace Hettle:
What might have ended there as an everyday online spat was only the beginning. A frequent visitor to the Bitch Ph.D. site, the University of Northern Iowa history professor Wallace Hettle, felt obliged to defend Bitch Ph.D.’s liberal end of the blogosphere. Hettle found Deignan’s curriculum vita at Info Theory, which lists his academic advisers, the Purdue mechanical engineers Galen King and Peter Meckl, who will play a big part in deciding if he will ultimately receive a Ph.D. Hettle e-mailed them, indicating that Deignan’s comments were “unprofessional” and “contrary to the spirit of free enquiry.” Hettle announced his actions within the comment section of Bitch Ph.D.
“Yes, we received an e-mail,” King confirmed on Wednesday. “It said that Paul was exceeding his bounds, if you will, on what is essentially a private site. He’s been asked to refrain, at least until he’s [graduated from Purdue].”
Read the whole thing. And I don’t care about your personal opinions of Jeff Goldstein, Bitch PhD, Deignan, or Hettle, so don’t bother depositing them here. Just discuss the issue.
Zifnab
Jesus, that’s just a giant headache. Honestly, it’s just a stupid little arguement on a blogsite. No one’s running for Senate and no one’s out to change the world. And trying to influence a person’s run up to Ph.D., …. that’s just low. There’s enough obstacles in the graduate programs of our day and age as it stands. But getting kneecapped by a blogger for how you run your own damn website I just can’t bring myself to approve of in the least.
aop
There you have it.
Is there any reason this keeps getting rehashed, other than the fact that this Hettle guy is a caricature of overzealous PC liberalism in academia? Is this supposed to be emblematic of a bigger problem? Is anybody that invested in what happens to either of these assholes?
Kimmitt
In theory, yes. In reality, of course not.
John S.
Jeff G. says:
Lauren Gelman says:
So in short, Jeff, yes.
And John, if you want to link to what Inside Higher Education is reporting, why don’t you link to THEM instead of your pal Jeff? As you said:
Then why should we care about Jeff’s personal opinions rather than discussing the issue as Inside Higher Education has done?
To paraphrase Jeff: Sadly, we’ve reached a point where even attempts to de-politicize personal matters that should be dealt with objectivity are met with partisan defensiveness and rancor.
Please John, lead by example. This “do as I say, not as I do” mentality is not becoming of an intelligent and rational person such as yourself.
srv
Pb
Well that should be pretty easy for him, since he was banned from the site already. Yawn.
demimondian
I don’t know what Jeff G. did or did not say, and so I can’t comment on this particular case. I can say that I’ve dealt with unprofessional internet behavior on the part of students before — and, yes, even under his own description, Jeff’s behavior was unprofessional — and my response has always been to give a warning about the social consequences of such actions. I also always pointed out that there would be no professional consequences as long as the student stayed within the University’s AUP. I’d usually ask — not tell — the student to refrain from whatever behavior he or she had been engaging in that evoked the complaint, at least while operating under his university account.
And that’s all I’d do…unless I complained, in my own turn, to the complainer’s supervisor or departmental chair. Threatening a student, you see, is also grossly unprofessional behavior. Complain to me? Sure, within the bounds of the AUP. Threaten one of my kids? Not twice, sucker, at least, not if I can do anything about it.
Sherard
Real nice job by the Purdue professors to stand up for the right of their student to do WHATEVER THE HELL HE WANTS when not in the direct service of Purdue University.
Pussies.
Nikki
Hettle was wrong in trying to get Deignan in trouble with his advisors. Deignan was wrong in attemting to out Bitch PhD after he was banned from her site. He would’ve been able to maintain the high road if he hadn’t tried to do that.
Other than that, who cares?
Sherard
That goes for you, too, demimondian. Political correctness trumps individual rights. Such a reassuring thought. I weep for the future of this country.
jcricket
Hettle is definitely in the wrong, and cast the first stone (I don’t think Deignan’s comments were so out of bounds that they required official censure beyond the bounds of the blog itself).
Deignan is similarly wrong for pursuing Bitch, PhD. Her response (deleting the comments, commenting on the comments, whatever) is well within the rights of the blog purveyor. And it damages his case in the “public sphere” to be so incorrectly vindictive.
Deignan may or may not be wrong in suing Hettle. If this actually impacts his ability to pursue he graduate education, or influences his advisors to view him negatively, there should be some resource.
Ones performance in academia is more than just charts and graphs. It’s also about the ability to get along with people, probably to teach students well, etc. If Deignan’s response to this whole situation negatively reflects on his character, that’s not out of bounds for his advisors to consider.
In other words, looks like his advisors took the proper course of action. They didn’t kick him out of school, they didn’t infringe unduly on his rights, they simply requested he refrain from attempting to return to the site that banned him. Seems reasonable.
And, Deignan is well within his rights to pursue Hettle for potential harm that it may have caused. Let’s let the courts settle that.
Kimmitt
I absolutely reserve the right to point and laugh while it is happening.
demimondian
FWIW, jcricket described the overall behavior of all concerned much better than I did. The only criticism I’d have of anyone in the story is that, in the advisor’s shoes, I’d have said nothing more than “We received a complaint, and we have acted on it. As far as Purdue is concerned, the issue is closed.” I would not have publicly said anything about asking the student to refrain from posting.
Jane Finch
There is no issue. There are, however, a bunch of posturing quivery internet egos. I hope they all sue each other into bankruptcy.
Dave Ruddell
Now there’s something that should have been specifically mentioned in the Bill of Rights.
fwiffo
Let’s see – some humorless wanker goes on a blog and acts like a wanker. They get their more wankerish comments deleted and get banned. Then some other wanker tries to out wanker him by contacting his advisors. The original wanker feels inadequate in his wankeriness and goes to extreme lengths of wankerdom out out wanker the other wanker with the threats of outing, lawsuits and other such wankery. Then a bunch of other wankers decide to bloviate about the wanking and call each other wankers.
Why are we still talking about this again?
Shygetz
I saw the letter (here. If what Hettle said about Deignan is true; that he was banned and seemed to defeat the IP ban, then he didn’t do anything wrong. He did not try to use his position as a professor to influence Deignan’s advisors. He informed them of Deignan’s alleged actions. I think Hettle was a out of line for doing it, but that’s all. If anyone had cause to complain of IP spoofing, it’s BitchPhD, not Hettle. If what Hettle said is not true (Deignan denies it, BitchPhD and Hettle assert it), then Hettle and BitchPhD are clearly wrong, and should retract their statements. Deignan’s lawsuits in such a case seem extreme.
Now Deignan admits to doing something here.
Now, reading this, it seems like after Deignan had been asked to leave, he went back and had a little fun with BitchPhD about how she can’t really ban him that way. As my stepfather used to say, don’t poke the bear. If you have been clearly asked not to comment, then don’t comment.
Seems like Deignan was being a little dick, BitchPhD asked him to leave, Deignan decided to be a big dick, Hettle decided to be a bigger dick, and then Deignan decided to out-dick ’em all and sue.
I reserve Kimmitt’s right to point and laugh.
Steve S
So is Paul Deignan suing for pain and suffering because he got his feelings hurt when someone told him to grow up and act like an adult?
Tort Reform! We need Tort Reform!
Steve S
Hereon forthwith, Jeff G. shall be referred by his new nickname Al Sharpton.
Paul D. shall be referred to by his new nickname Tawana Brawley.
Anderson
Disappointed with King’s reaction. His response to Hettle should’ve been, “who are you? no, wait, just STFU.”
But as King admitted, he doesn’t know jack about blogs. Trespass upon a private site–how uncouth!
As I think I said at Jeff G.’s, Deignan is a complete dumbass for stirring up trouble under his own name while he’s in a Ph.D. program. Anyone that dumb cannot complain too loudly about consequences.
The Internet is NOT the pre-K playground where Teacher will fix it if some bad boy calls you names.
jcricket
Good point. I agree. But, practically, given Deignan’s behavior, perhaps they were trying to publicly state what they did so it would be even more clear to Deignan that they meant it. I’ve been in situations where bosses have made decisions public (usually more artfully than his advisors did) in order to make the people affected know they were on notice.
RSA
I’ve been trying to figure out the response of Deignan’s advisors as well. demimondian gives a good example of what it should have been. On the other hand, I’ve been on the phone with people and said stuff I wish I could have taken back later. But here’s some frivolous speculation about why: “[Deignan’s] nine-year real-life journey toward a Ph.D.” This suggests he’s been in the department longer than a significant percentage of the faculty (if he’s really spent that much time at Purdue.) The common expression is “tenured grad student.” Maybe Deignan’s advisors were just lighting a fire. Who knows?
bill deignan
My last name is Deignan, and I’m now embarrassed to have that name as it relates to this ridiculous blather. If my last name was Hettle, I would feel the same. Rather than wasting time disputing the issue, we should be discussing more important issues…like farting.