4 ms·
He resigned before exhausting appeal, he wasn't sentenced. And losing your job isn't criminal sentencing. Most people in the US work at will and can be fired
by cma 6y ago
He resigned before exhausting appeal, he wasn't sentenced. And losing your job isn't criminal sentencing. Most people in the US work at will and can be fired for almost any reason or even no reason at all.
In contrast he got paid to do nothing for 14 months. He painted things as Kafka-esque, but for a typical worker it would be a huge improvement over arbitrary firing for any reason.
Maybe we should have more due process for losing your job, but his situation is so much better than what the vast majority are at risk of, in terms of protections, that it should be near the lowest priority to worry about.
- throwaway894345 6y agoI’m not arguing that he was sentenced criminally or otherwise, and poor negotiating conditions for other workers doesn’t excuse what is by all appearances abhorrent behavior by the provost and others. I hate that any time someone identifies a problem, some people come out of the woodwork to suggest that we shouldn’t do anything about it because someone somewhere has it worse. We can strengthen worker’s rights and abhor this gross abuse of power.
- cma 6y agoIt isn't that someone somewhere has it worse. It is the norm in America. We should be more concerned about getting fairer policies in place for people much farther down Maslow's hierarchy of needs, who can be fired arbitrarily rather than having to do something like sleep with a student and argue a technicality and in the end be able to resign and not actually be fired. They don't get 14 months paid time off or a trial of any kind.
- throwaway894345 6y agoBy that same token, we should never discuss your pet issue (legally guaranteed job protections) nor other issues (racial inequality, political polarization, etc) and every conversation about it should immediately digress to the worst problems: genocide, disease, starvation, mass poverty, child soldiers, sexual slavery, etc etc. Of course, this is nonsense and it violates HN guidelines about staying on topic. Further, it prevents us from making any progress on issues that are relatively easily remedied (repealing the problematic Title IX guidance) until these huge issues are resolved. So please, let's stay on topic and recognize that there is no inherent conflict between staying on topic and prioritizing problems appropriately.
- cma 6y agoHe was cleared of the Title IX stuff.
- throwaway894345 6y agoAttempted murder is better than successful murder but I would much prefer neither.