State Rep. Jon Hansen is apparently speaking at SDSU this evening in his campaign tour for Governor:
Not just a little ironically, his appearance at SDSU comes just a short time after Hansen demanded the firing of a USD professor over what he posted on Facebook. Which was temporarily restrained by a federal judge in court yesterday. According to the article about the court’s action:
He was suspended because he angered powerful people in South Dakota with commentary on a “matter of public concern,” Leach said.
“Yet here, we have the government, at the highest level, punishing Professor Hook for his political speech,” he added, arguing that Speaker Hansen’s communications with USD President Sheila Gestring appeared to be all it took to set the wheels of termination in motion.
and..
Instead, he argued, the termination notice was an unconstitutional violation of Hook’s First Amendment rights and grounds for an immediate court order that would reinstate him and block the University of South Dakota from proceeding with its disciplinary action and barring retaliatory action.
Having been on the receiving end myself of several Hansen attempts at cancellation, one has to wonder if his talk will consist of how we as a country can best prevent the exercise of free speech?
Not counting all the money he pocketed from South Dakotans for his “consulting” fees on ballot measures, I wonder how much Jon Hansen has cost the state in legal fees over the years?
Hook has tenure, an antiquated custom that was supposed to guarantee academic freedom, so they could publish anything they want.
It began in an era when few people lived long enough to develop dementia, and before anybody could post idiotic rants on social media platforms.
I was working for a university 50 years ago where it was being observed that tenured professors were causing problems. Both of my grandfathers had been tenured professors but neither of them lost their minds before passing, so I was unaware of the problem until I was employed in academia myself.
It’s time to end tenure. Arguments that this will interfere with recruitment and retention are specious: it’s not like any of them are capable of doing anything else for a living.
Tenure was eliminated a while back at SD Universities from my understanding. It has hurt recruitment and hiring.
Hopefully he brings his electric guitar and just jams. That’s the only way college kids will listen to him. They probably won’t be interested in how many cows he milked on his wife’s parent’s place, how woke professors are destroying our universities, and his lack of an economic plan to combat huge revenue losses SD is facing in the upcoming years because economic development is evil.
Well anonymous at 2:19 pm, if what you think of tenured professors is correct, take a good look at the senators and representatives running this country, and maybe the biggest thing to look at is the president, How about all his statements maybe it’s time to admit anyone over the age of 75 has no business trying to run this country