Jeffrey A. Schaler, Ph.D.

"Todschweigen" 

        at Chestnut Hill College: 
The Story of How One Professor was Quietly Deprived of Academic Freedom And Disposed of for Examining the Cult Like Nature of Alcoholics Anonymous, Debunking the Disease Model of Addiction, and Questioning the Idea that Mental Illness Exists The Stage: Chestnut Hill College, Philadelphia, PA http://www.chc.edu/ The Program: Counseling Psychology and Human Services http://www.chc.edu/graduate/Gpsych.html The Players: Scott W. Browning, Ph.D. http://www.chc.edu/faculty/Browningsc/ Thomas Klee, Ph.D. http://www.chc.edu/faculty/klee/index.htm Jeffrey A. Schaler, Ph.D. http://www.schaler.net William T. Walker, Ph.D. http://www.chc.edu/administration/ The courses: http://www.schaler.net/syllabi.html With The American Association of University Professors http://www.aaup.org/ and The AAUP Statement on Academic Freedom & Tenure http://www.aaup.org/coma.htm and the press weighs in The Chronicle of Higher Education report on this story: "The Myth of Academic Freedom" Project Censored at Sonoma State College gives The Chronicle Of Higher Education's story "Honorable Mention" The Philadelphia City Paper's report on this story INTRODUCTION In June, 1997, I received a telephone call from Scott W. Browning, Ph.D., Chairman of the graduate program in psychology at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Dr. Browning asked me to travel to Philadelphia from Maryland to meet with him, as he wanted me to teach in their graduate psychology program. He read my vitae and supporting materials. We had a cordial meeting and he later asked me to teach a course entitled "Spirituality of the Twelve Steps" for the Fall 1997 semester. I agreed to do so. The description of this course in the Chestnut Hill Catalogue of courses is as follows: "GRCP 634 Spirituality of the Twelve Steps. Addresses spirituality as a key aspect of the twelve-step recovery program." I asked the department administrative assistant for a copy of past syllabi for this course, so that I could see what other professors had done with it. I was told that the past professor for this course, Thomas E. Klee, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychology at Chestnut Hill College, refused to share any of his past syllabi. This was later confirmed by Dr. Browning in a meeting I had with him and William T. Walker, Ph.D., Dean of the Faculty and Vice President of Academic Affairs at Chestnut Hill College. I created a course from scratch. You can read the syllabus I created for this course at http://www.schaler.net/spirit12.html About a month after starting the semester Dr. Browning asked me to teach "Foundations of Addictive Behavior" in the Spring 1998 semester. About a month into the Spring 1998 semester he asked me to teach a course entitled "Introduction to Graduate Counseling Psychology" for the Summer 1998 session. On Sun, 28 Jun 1998 22:00:24 +0000 I received the letter below from Dr. Thomas E. Klee. I have never met Dr. Klee. The "email concerning Szasz" he mentions is in reference to my having written to Dr. Klee at his private web site http://enter.net/~tklee/psych1.html [now a dead link]. At this website he had a list of resources and a link whereby visitors could suggest to him other links he might want to connect his site to as resources [http://www.enter.net/~tklee/psych8.html--dead link]. He wrote "If you would like your site added to this page, click here, and email information." I clicked on that button and introduced myself to him as an adjunct professor in the same department as he is (the title given to me by the college was "adjunct professor"). I then suggested he might be interested in linking his private site to the Szasz site. As a result of that letter I was informed that my name must not appear on any college literature, e.g., schedule of classes. All three courses I taught for the college have now been turned over to other faculty. THE DRAMA From: tklee@enter.net To: jschale@american.edu [Sunday, June 28, 1998, 10:00 PM] Dear Dr. Schaler: I received your email concerning Szasz, and I must let you know I was deeply offended at your connection between Chestnut Hill College and your political beliefs about Szasz. You are, of course, entitled to your beliefs as well as your right to send them out through cyberspace. My best wishes in that effort. However, any link to Chestnut Hill College is inappropriate. The Department of Professional Psychology at Chestnut Hill College is on record with a specific theoretical orientation. This is our public position and any implied connection between Chestnut Hill College and orientations that directly oppose our stated orientation are confusing and misleading to the public. Finally, I am deeply concerned that you have taken these actions without gaining approval from either the Department or the College. I can assure you that the Department will not give you permission to connect us to an advocation of Szasz's beliefs. Best wishes in your future endeavors. P.S. Your web page is well done. Nice dog. Thomas Klee, Ph.D. Department of Professional Psychology Chestnut Hill College Philadelphia PA 19118 Tel: 215-248-7115 Fax: 215-248-7155 tklee@enter.net tklee@chc.edu ***** Date: Wed, 01 Jul 98 16:00:23 EDT From: "Dr. Jeffrey A. Schaler"<JSCHALE@american.edu> Organization: The American University Subject: Re: Szasz and CHC To: tklee <tklee@enter.net> In-Reply-To: Your message of Sun, 28 Jun 1998 22:00:24 +0000 Dr. Klee: Dr. Scott Browning has now received a hard copy of your letter below [as above, June 28]. I sent it to him with a letter requesting a meeting with him about your letter. We will be discussing this shortly. Your comprehension of academic freedom is apparently incomplete. I suggest you re-read the definitions of academic freedom as endorsed by the American Association of University Professors and the Association of American Colleges. These statements are available on the web. Moreover, I have never connected Chestnut Hill College with any "political beliefs" publicly or privately. I do not understand the basis on which you make this and your other rather hostile remarks. I would appreciate it very much if you would substantiate your accusations with evidence. Otherwise, what you have written is meaningless to me, and should be to others. Jeffrey A. Schaler, Ph.D. jschale@american.edu ***** From: tklee@enter.net To: jschale@american.edu Date: Wed, 1 Jul 1998 17:17:09 +0000 Subject: reply Dear Dr. Schaler: My previous email affirmed your academic freedom, and your right to express it though out cyberspace or anywhere else, so I was surprised at your response, especially your ascribing hostility to my motive. But then at my age I really should no longer be surprised at the great variety of ways others perceive and interpret information. So, assuming that I was not sufficiently clear, let me try again. I simply cautioned you to distinguish between your particular beliefs/orientation and the official, published orientation of the Department of Professional Psychology at Chestnut Hill College. We have worked very hard at achieving an orientation that we use in our marketing and public presentations. I just do not want any confusion about that orientation in the minds of students or the general public. I admit I might be a little oversensitive to this issue. Since I originated our graduate program in 1987, I have always been concerned about the integrity of the program. It may surprise you that I share many of your beliefs as presented on you web page; and anyone who knows me would be shocked at the suggestion that I do not understand academic freedom, since I have been one of the main advocates of academic freedom at CHC, and have, throughout my life, been an advocate for individual liberty. Finally, I though I made some rather positive statements about your rights and your web page. Good luck at your meeting with Dr. Browning. I am hopeful that he can help you reach some clarification. Thomas Klee, Ph.D. Department of Professional Psychology Chestnut Hill College Philadelphia, PA 19118 Summer e-mail: tklee@enter.net ***** Date: Thu, 02 Jul 98 16:23:19 EDT From: "Dr. Jeffrey A. Schaler" Organization: The American University Subject: Re: reply To: tklee@enter.net In-Reply-To: Your message of Wed, 1 Jul 1998 17:17:09 +0000 July 2, 1998 Thomas Klee, Ph.D. Department of Professional Psychology Chestnut Hill College Philadelphia, PA 19118 tklee@enter.net Dr. Klee: I'd asked you to provide evidence to substantiate your accusations and you did not. However, I have investigated the matter on my own and I hope to have now discovered the source of what appears to be a misunderstanding. I teach at several different universities and am frequently asked by administrators to either provide biographical material for their web sites, syllabi, and/or links to web pages of my own. Most schools encourage if not require it. Theoretical and political orientations of the faculty members are irrelevant. On my web page I list all of the syllabi, past and present, for the various schools I teach at. You can see this for yourself at http://rdz.acor.org/szasz/schaler/syllabi.html [now a dead link]. I also include the urls for the various courses on my various syllabi so students can access these directly, along with other relevant information concerning topics covered in class. Since Chestnut Hill College has a web page with course listings and schedule of classes, I contacted the webmaster at CHC and suggested a link to my syllabus for Introduction to Graduate Counseling Psychology. I have enclosed a copy of this correspondence here for your information. As you can see from the correspondence below, the webmaster linked the name of the course to my syllabus for CHC. You should also know that _I_ cannot make any changes to the CHC web site on my own. Only the CHC webmaster can do that. That was this past May. I created and own The Thomas S. Szasz Cybercenter for Liberty and Responsibility (known as "the Szasz site"). This site is provided by me as a public service. As you can see, there are contributions from many distinguished professionals on the site and more contributions will be added regularly. I am also one of the contributors and I use the site to house my own personal web pages. The Szasz site is hosted by St. John's University in Jamaica, N.Y. I was invited by the person in charge there, Dr. Robert Zenhausern, a professor of psychology at St. John's, to have the Szasz site hosted there. I graciously accepted his kind invitation. You may also be interested to know that Dr. Zenhausern does not agree with everything posted on the site. He has also informed me that he disagrees with some of my positions and perspectives on mental health and illness. Nevertheless, in the sprit of providing important academic information and theoretical perspectives, he hosts this and many other sites as a public service. On approximately June 7, 1998, Dr. Zenhausern retired from St. John's. Once again he invited me to move my site to a new host, rdz.acor.org, which he is now in charge of. Again, I graciously accepted his kind offer. He politely took it upon himself to create and post a referring page to the new site, http://rdz.acor.org/szasz [dead], so as not to cause any extra work for me and the many people from around the world who visit the Szasz site. A tribute to his public service is offered in the current issue of Psychnews International, an on-line publication, due out next week. You can subscribe to this publication free of charge (and read a statement by Dr. Zenhausern followed by two appreciations by psychologists) by sending the following command to listserv@listserv.nodak.edu subscribe psychnews yourfirstname yourlastname. Updates to the new address at rdz.acor.org should be complete in the next few days. In the meantime, it appears when people go to the old address (http://rdz.stjohns.edu/szasz} [now a dead link] and _any_ of the pages housed there, they are automatically shifted to a referring page, informing them the url has been changed. After a few seconds, people are taken to the home page at the new address. Thus, even if people point their browsers to a specific page on the site at the old address, they are taken automatically to the home page for the site at the new address. Apparently this is what happened when people linked from the course name at CHC. They were taken to a referring page, and then automatically taken to the home page of the Szasz site. In order to avoid any further confusion, I stopped by the computer lab at Chestnut Hill College today and explained the matter to the webmaster. We explored the problem with the link together. I requested the link be eliminated. She kindly did so and we confirmed this together. Thus, there is no longer any link from the CHC web site to my web pages. I hope you understand it has never been my intention to link Chestnut Hill College with any particular political, psychological, and/or philosophical orientation -- other than one cherishing academic freedom and teaching excellence. I appreciate Dr. Browning's invitation to teach at Chestnut Hill College and I believe I have fulfilled and will continue to fulfill my teaching responsibilities there with the utmost integrity and respect for students, other faculty members, and the institution as a whole. I expect the same kind of respect in return. As you are undoubtedly aware, there is a great deal of intolerance expressed and demonstrated by professionals in the fields of psychology and psychiatry who adhere to competing theoretical explanations for behavior and the diverse clinical, legal, political and social policies based on those explanations. Having been a target of such intolerance and discrimination in the past, I do not take kindly to accusations and/or suggestions that I am anything less than highly responsible and ethical in my work as a professional. The various department chairs, my faculty colleagues, and my students at each of the institutions I have been invited to teach at will attest to my integrity in this regard. Moreover, I have been completely open in all my dealings with Dr. Browning, sharing syllabi, vitae updates, examinations, study guides, etc. I have offered to give a talk to department faculty so colleagues know something about my views (I have met only one faculty member in the department other than Dr. Browning, and that was by way of passing in the hall). I offered to sponsor a guest lecture at CHC by a well-known psychiatrist who has recently come out with a very interesting book on Buddhism and psychotherapy because of CHC's expressed interest in psychology and spirituality. I spoke with Dr. Browning about this and gave him relevant materials which he presented at a faculty meeting. I heard nothing. The author came and left the Philadelphia area. I welcome respectful and vigorous debate. If you are in strong disagreement with my ideas, as you suggested in your first letter, I am happy to engage in a public debate with you on a topic of mutual interest. Perhaps we can make this a college-wide debate in the fall. I hope this letter now clears up the matter to your satisfaction. Sincerely yours, Jeffrey A. Schaler, Ph.D. jschale@american.edu ***** Return-Path: To: jschale@american.edu (by way of "Lisa M. Olivieri"<webmastr@chc.edu>) From: Webmaster Subject: Re: Linking my course syllabus and other info I have linked your syllabus to the name of your course. We are in the process of developing policies regarding linking individual faculty pages. Since neither our full-time nor part-time faculty can link personal pages right now, we can only link your syllabus. Hope this is sufficient for your needs. If you would like a discussion page for your course, we would be glad to develop one. If you wish to view a sample discussion page: http://www.chc.edu/comsc300 Lisa M. Olivieri, SSJ Webmaster, CHC At 09:45 AM 5/12/98 -0400, Dr. Jeffrey A. Schaler wrote: Hello, I'm an adjunct professor in the Graduate Division of Counseling Psychology and have a question regarding possible links on your web page. I'm teaching Introduction to Counseling Psychology - GRCP 499 in Summer Session II 1998. This course is listed at http://www.chc.edu/graduate/psychsum98.html I have a large web page at St. John's University in Jamaica, NY and since I teach at several universities I keep my course syllabi there for students. Would it be possible for you to link the following url to GRCP 499 Introduction to Counseling Psychology http://rdz.stjohns.edu/szasz/schaler/introgradcounsel.html and possibly link the following to my name as it's listed at your site as J. Schaler, Ph.D. http://rdz.stjohns.edu/szasz/schaler/index.html If it's one or the other please link just the syllabi. Only half of the syllabus is up now because I'm finalizing it now. However, if you link to it now it will be ready for students in two weeks. Please let me know if you can do this or not. Thanks very much. Jeffrey A. Schaler, Ph.D. jschale@american.edu ***** I telephoned Scott Browning several times to talk about my fall teaching schedule and to arrange a meeting with him to discuss this matter with Dr. Klee in person. I sent him a copy of the above correspondence between Dr. Klee and myself. After refusing to return my phone calls, Dr. Browning finally called me after I sent a letter to him requesting a meeting. We met in his office on July 17, 1998. I sent him the following letter two days later and cc-ed a copy of it to the President of Chestnut Hill College: July 19, 1998 Scott Browning, Ph.D. Chairman Department of Counseling Psychology and Human Services Chestnut Hill College 9601 Germantown Ave. Philadelphia, PA. 19118-2693 Dear Scott: As a matter of record I want to confirm with you the following conversations we had at our meeting on Friday, July 17: You asked me what my personal views/opinions of Alcoholics Anonymous are. You said you did not want me to teach "Spirituality of the 12-Steps" again. Since I taught this course for you last fall using some of the most erudite interdisciplinary resources available, including anthropological, sociological, historical, and psychological perspectives from materials I have used successfully at other academic institutions for many years -- _all of which I shared with you _ -- it is clear now the only reason you are not re-hiring me to teach that course is because of my personal views/opinion of Alcoholics Anonymous and your personal views/opinion of my views and opinion. Apparently, a professor at Chestnut Hill College must believe the philosophy and doctrine of Alcoholics Anonymous are true -- over and above any peer-reviewed academic materials to the contrary -- in order to be re-hired. That criteria is hardly characteristic of a good doctoral program. You asked me about my personal belief in "mental illness." You asked me about psychiatrist Thomas S. Szasz. You made clear you did not want me to teach "Foundations of Addictive Behavior" again. Since I taught this course for you this past spring using some of the most erudite interdisciplinary resources available, materials I have used successfully at other academic institutions for years, it is clear now the only reason you are not re-hiring me to teach that course is because of my personal views/opinion of the nature of mental illness and my relationship with Thomas Szasz, M.D. Apparently, a professor at Chestnut Hill College must believe in the existence of mental illness and the disease model of addiction doctrine in order to be re- hired. Deconstructing the disease model of behavior is apparently forbidden in your doctoral program. You told me Dr. Thomas Klee, a professor in your department, had "yelled" at you on the phone about my being linked in any way to Chestnut Hill College. You told me he said I am not an adjunct professor at Chestnut Hill College. You told me you told him I am an adjunct professor at Chestnut Hill College. You told me you would not put my name on the schedule of courses because Professor Klee would be upset by this. You said you might ask me to teach a course in the fall on "theory" because then you could get me to teach for you and my name would not appear on college literature so as not to further anger Dr. Klee. As you recall, in the letters I gave you from Dr. Klee and my responses to him he wrote " . . . I must let you know I was deeply offended at your connection between Chestnut Hill College and your political beliefs about Szasz. (June 28, 1998)" When I left your office on Friday I read the schedule of fall classes for the first time and noted that all three classes I taught for you this past year, "Spirituality of the 12-steps," "Foundations of Addictive Behavior," and now "Introduction to Graduate Counseling Psychology" (which, as you know, I am still teaching) are all being taught by other professors. You replaced me for all three courses without discussing the matter with me. As you recall, I left a written message for you in your office mail box last semester, called you and left a message on your voice mail, stopped by your office to see if by chance you were in (and told your secretary I was looking for you), and sent you a letter requesting a meeting to discuss future teaching plans. When we finally made plans to meet you apologized for not getting back to me. Apparently during that time you were making other arrangements to have me replaced -- yet you did not want to talk to me about it. That was cowardly of you. Moreover, it now appears that the link to my web page via Chestnut Hill College (documented in my letter to Dr. Klee, copies of which I sent to you and have enclosed here for the President of Chestnut Hill College) had very little to do with Dr. Klee's anger. I prepared and taught three courses for Chestnut Hill College and I believe I did an excellent job. That was a lot of work. I am now receiving phone calls and letters from students wondering why my name is not on the fall schedule of courses. I have copies of position papers by students from "Foundations of Addictive Behaviors" detailing the ways in which their thinking has changed as a result of their course with me. These are outstandingly positive reports. You have not shared any of the evaluations by students from that course with me to date. I have discussed this matter with senior professors at major graduate institutions around the country. They have read my correspondence with Dr. Klee. They are shocked by what you and Dr. Klee have done to me. Moreover, they say your behavior speaks very poorly of your department and the college as a whole. I tend to agree. It is clear now you have discriminated against me on the basis of my personal ideas, values and philosophies. Apparently, you and Dr. Klee are entitled to your opinions yet I am not. The integrity and ethical quality of my teaching has always been high. You have never contested that. You know the majority of my students at Chestnut Hill College will stand by me. I suspect once they find out I have been "let go" you will hear complaints. Some may be reluctant to express themselves out of fear you and other professors may retaliate against them in some indirect way. I have already received reports about exchanges between former students of mine and their current professors at CHC. When I tell students I have not been asked back to teach they know why: They say "what about academic freedom?" And this really is the bottom line here Scott: You are flagrantly violating the principles of academic freedom as established by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). I am requesting a review of the matter. I am now being urged by colleagues to write about my experience with you and Dr. Klee as representatives of Chestnut Hill College for national publications. As you know, I write a regular column for Psychnews International and I plan to write about the state of academic freedom in it this fall. I have been asked by the producer of "DEBATESDEBATES," a television program broadcast on 170 PBS stations nationwide, for a topic to focus his show on in the next few months (as you know, I've been a guest on approximately 10 of these shows over the past year and a half) and I intend to suggest "Is Academic Freedom A Myth?" as a topic. I will ask the producers to contact you and Dr. Klee so you both will have an opportunity to defend yourselves and the College publicly. Finally, another colleague of mine, a tenured professor at Penn State, has encouraged me to post Dr. Klee's letters and my responses to him on my web page for everyone to judge for themselves. We already have other examples of this involving other professors at our web site now. As you may be unaware, the web site has received international recognition and outstanding praise. I know this is all upsetting to you and will likely upset your superiors as a copy of this letter has been sent to the President of Chestnut Hill College. I'm afraid you've brought these consequences on yourself. I do not take kindly to the kind of discrimination you and Dr. Klee are engaged in. You have both been disrespectful, dishonest and unprofessional in your dealings with me. I also think you are hurting your students dearly by engaging in such discriminatory practices. And you are certainly misleading them into thinking they are in an intellectually rigorous program. You may also be hurting your department's reputation. If Chestnut Hill College belongs to any professional association of colleges and universities adopting the AAUP's position statement on academic freedom it appears Chestnut Hill College is in violation of that policy and risks censure. Clearly, you are setting out on the wrong foot with regard to your new doctoral program. Sincerely yours, Jeffrey A. Schaler, Ph.D. cc: President Carol Jean Vale, SSJ, Ph.D. ***** Dr. Browning called me upon receiving the letter and was extremely upset. He said the letter was the equivalent of "hitting him square in the face." He said "why would you send a copy of this to the President?" I then received the following letter from William T. Walker, Ph.D., Dean of the Faculty and Vice-President of Academic Affairs at Chestnut Hill College: Chestnut Hill College July 4, 1998 Dear Dr. Schaler: President S. Carol Jean Vale, SSJ has provided me with a copy of your letter to Dr. Scott Browning of July 19th. I suggest that you call me at 215/248/7130 so that Dr. Browning, you and I can arrange a meeting to discuss the issues which you have raised. I look forward to meet you and hope to hear from you soon. Sincerely, William T. Walker, Ph.D. Vice president for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty c: S. Carol jean Vale, SSJ, Ph.D., President Dr. Scott Browning, Chair, Department of Professional Psychology 9601 Germantown Avenue Phone : 215-248-7000 Philadelphia, PA 19118-2693 ***** I called Dr. Walker and we arranged a date to meet with Dr. Browning on August 12, 1998. The three of us met at Chestnut Hill College on August 12 and discussed the matter at length for about 1.25 hours. During this meeting Dr. Walker listened to both sides and read all documents Drs. Browning, Klee and I had exchanged. During the meeting Dr. Browning said the following to me in front of Dr. Walker: "You talked about how AA was a cult in your class entitled "Spirituality of the Twelve Steps." I responded by saying I used several articles that had been published in peer- reviewed journals on the cult and religious nature of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). I asked him if that was unacceptable. He said "yes," meaning it was unacceptable to use articles examining the cult-like nature of AA even if they were in respectable journals. At another point in the meeting he said a few students were critical of me. I pointed out how those students were in AA and that a graduate program in psychology should not be advancing the ideology of AA, and that if a student in their graduate program could not step back and examine AA objectively then she had no business being in that program. I further asked Dr. Browning what the majority of the students in my classes had written in terms of their evaluations of my teaching. He said the majority had praised my teaching. I asked him if he was giving more weight to one or two students who were critical of me than to the majority of students who praised my teaching. He said that he was giving greater weight to those students who were critical of what I was teaching. Dr. Browning tried unsuccessfully to argue that I was making "much ado about nothing." I then asked him if he thought it was respectful of a faculty member at Chestnut Hill College to characterize me as a "defensive reactionary." He paused and said he would not consider doing so respectful. I then showed him and Dr. Walker a copy of the following correspondence: ***** Date: Sat, 18 Jul 1998 22:43:38 -0400 From: David Herman Reply-To: daherman@suffolk.lib.ny.us To: jschale@american.edu Subject: [Fwd: Re: Dr. Jeff Schlaer] From: tklee@enter.net To: daherman@suffolk.lib.ny.us Date: Sat, 18 Jul 1998 20:27:28 +0000 Subject: Re: Dr. Jeff Schlaer In-reply-to: <35B133E7.194@suffolk.lib.ny.us> Dear Sir: Thank you for your kind note. It is always nice to hear from such an enlightened person, especially in a world that is filled with so many defensive reactionaries. > Date: Sat, 18 Jul 1998 19:46:47 -0400 > From: David Herman <daherman@suffolk.lib.ny.us> > Reply-to: daherman@suffolk.lib.ny.us > To: tklee@enter.net > Subject: Dr. Jeff Schlaer > Enclosed. > I thought I would send you this in light of your dispute with Dr. Schaler. For helping Adler with the new edition he gave me a set of GREAT BOOKS. I found out about this book from Dr. Szasz. Adler was invited to speak by Szasz's teacher, Dr. Franz Alexander. The attending psychiatrists, including Dr. Karl Menninger, were so upset by what Adler had to say that they branded Adler with a psychiatric diagnosis. The full story is in Adler's autobiography PHILOSOPHER AT LARGE. Dr. Szasz's and Dr. Schaler's position on "mental illness" is not new. Mortimer Adler says it goes back as far as St. Thomas Aquinas! Adler in WHAT MAN HAS MADE OF MAN says Freud can best be understood in the light of Aquinas. Adler has a a Freud volume in each of the 2 editions of the GREAT BOOKS series so, like Szasz and Schaler, he is not anti- Freud. I met Dr. Schaler at the debate Dr. Szasz had with Dr. Torrey at Towson State University. Although, I, Dr. Szasz, Dr. Schaler, and Prof. Richard Vatz, who moderated the debate, disagree with "the medical model of mental illness", this did not prevent us from getting along with Dr. Torrey. Szasz and Torrey have been friends a long time. Dr. Szasz even endorsed Dr. Torrey's book THE DEATH OF PSYCHIATRY. ***** FEIGNING CLOSURE Dr. Walker listened carefully throughout the meeting and said in summary that this _was_ an issue of academic freedom and that Drs. Browning and Klee had interfered with my academic freedom, as I had consistently maintained. He pointed out how in a department of political science, for example, socialist and capitalist perspectives, while very much opposed to one another, must be allowed to co-exist. He then asked me what I wanted. Having anticipated that question, I presented him and Dr. Browning with the following memo: ***** Memorandum To: Scott Browning, Ph.D., Chair, Dept. of Professional Psychology William T. Walker, Ph.D., Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty, Chestnut Hill College Date:August 12, 1998 Re: My future relationship with Chestnut Hill College 1. What guarantee do I have from the two of you, as representatives of Chestnut Hill College, that I will not be discriminated against, as a faculty member, on the basis of my personal beliefs and political orientation by you, other faculty members, and/or employees of Chestnut Hill College? 2. I want you to guarantee to me that you will abide by the principles of academic freedom as stated by the American Association of University Professors in your dealings with me as a faculty member. 3. What ways do you think we can move beyond this current problem and how do you envision your future relationship with me? 4. I want complete freedom to list my affiliation as an adjunct professor at Chestnut Hill College in all forms of media where my name may appear, e.g. radio, television, newspapers, etc. 5. I would like to teach no more than three different courses. 6. I would like fair and reasonable notice regarding your intention to hire or not hire me for teaching. 7. If you are going to sever your relationship with me I would like an explanation of why that has occurred, is occurring, or will occur in writing. ***** Dr. Walker said he would send me a letter in response. I told him I thought he had been fair. I thanked him for meeting with me. We all shook hands and said good bye. About a week later I received the following letter from Dr. Walker: Chestnut Hill College August 18, 1998 Dear Jeff: It was a pleasure meeting with you last week to discuss the concerns which you expressed in your letter to Dr. Scott Browning of July 19, 1998. I would like to take this opportunity to re-state the views which I expressed at that meeting. 1. Chestnut Hill College is committed to the standards of academic freedom as expressed by the American Association of University Professors (see attachment). Further, we will not tolerate any form of discrimination against anyone on the basis of personal beliefs and/or political orientation. 2. We consider you to be a regular adjunct faculty member and as such, you may list yourself as affiliated with Chestnut Hill College. 3. I will work with S. Mary Anne Celenza, SSJ, Ph.D., Dean of the College for Women, Graduate School, and Continuing Education, to formulate written directives to Department Chairs and Program Directors on hiring procedures for adjunct faculty. These procedures will include timelines for hiring, notification to adjuncts who may not be needed for a particular semester, etc. Procedures relating to evaluations/review of adjunct faculty will also be developed. All of these documents will be shared with all of our adjunct faculty. 4. We encourage faculty to use technology to communicate with students and to share material such as course syllabi. 5. Regarding your interest in teaching no more than three different courses -- that choice is yours and we respect it. I hope that we can move on from this situation. I regret the inconvenience which may have resulted and iwll work to establish procedures which will curtail the recurrence of such a situation. If you have any questions now or later, please do not hesitate to contact me directly. With best wishes, Bill Walker William T. Walker, Ph.D. Vice president for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty c: Dr. Scott Browning 9601 Germantown Avenue Phone : 215-248-7000 Philadelphia, PA 19118-2693 ***** I responded in kind with the following letter: August 23, 1998 William T. Walker, Ph.D. Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty Chestnut Hill College 9601 Germantown Avenue Philadelphia, PA 19118-2693 Dear Bill: Thank you very much for your letter of August 18, 1998. I enjoyed meeting you and having the opportunity to go over my concerns raised in my letter to Dr. Scott Browning of July 19, 1998. I think you have been fair and sincere in listening to me and your decision is, I believe, as it should be. Several senior academic colleagues of mine at other universities around the country have now praised your defense of academic freedom and I believe Chestnut Hill College's reputation is protected. I think such praise for you is well-deserved. Enclosed you will also find a copy of my letter to Dr. Norma Schulman of the American Association of University Professors. I now consider the matter closed and behind us and I look forward to teaching for Scott Browning again in the near future. Thank you very much. Sincerely yours, Jeffrey A. Schaler, Ph.D. enclosure cc: Dr. Scott Browning ***** From: "Dr. Jeffrey A. Schaler" <JSCHALE@american.edu> Subject: Re: Your message to AAUP To: Norma Schulman <nschulman@aaup.org> Dear Dr. Schulman: Since your letter below I have now had a meeting with William T. Walker, Ph.D., Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty, Chestnut Hill College and Scott Browning, Ph.D., Chairman of the Dept. of Graduate Counseling Psychology, Chestnut Hill College, Philadelphia. Dr. Walker listened carefully to the evidence I provided and was very attentive to my concerns regarding infringements upon my academic freedom as a member of the faculty at Chestnut Hill College, discrimination on the basis of my personal beliefs, political orientation, etc. I received a very cordial and I believe sincere letter from Dr. Walker on August 22, 1998 ensuring my status as adjunct professor of psychology, and guaranteeing my academic freedom and my freedom to list my affiliation with the College in all public writings and media presentations. He also assured me the College would not tolerate any discrimination against me on the basis of my personal beliefs and political orientation. And he agreed to other requests and concerns of mine in a memorandum I gave to him and Dr. Browning at our meeting. He also reassured me Chestnut Hill College is committed to the standards of academic freedom as expressed by the AAUP. I have consulted with distinguished academic colleagues around the country regarding this case and the letter I received from Dr. Walker. I am pleased with this outcome and I believe I will not need any assistance from the AAUP at this time. Thank you very much for your prompt and considerate reply. With best wishes, Jeffrey A. Schaler, Ph.D. jschale@american.edu ***** On Fri, 31 Jul 1998 10:52:28 -0400 Norma Schulman said: Professor Schaler: If you would like your case to be reviewed, you should first of all try to appeal the decision at the institution (usually there's a limited time in which to file an appeal. What would be definitive in this context are the policies and procedures in your faculty handbook.) If you'd like AAUP assistance either call or send material (a narrative and some documentation) to Committee A. ***** I then received the following letter from Dr. Schulman: To: "Dr. Jeffrey A. Schaler" <JSCHALE@american.edu> From: "Norma Schulman" <nschulman@aaup.org> Subject: Re: Your message to AAUP Date: Mon, 24 Aug 1998 09:12:23 -0400 Professor Schaler, I'm very glad things worked out for you. Regards, Norma Schulman ***** DISHONESTY AND COWARDICE PREVAIL During the Fall of 1998 Dr. Browning refused to ask me to teach again. He refused to ask me to teach in the Spring of 1999 too. Students from the courses I taught there continued to contact me wanting to know why I was not scheduled to teach. I maintained correspondence with them in order to be helpful as their professor. I helped one student get into law school the University of Pittsburgh. Despite numerous requests for copies of the evaluations of my teaching by students for the course I taught during the summer of 1998 he refused to send me those evaluations. I waited patiently, however, enough was enough and I sent him the following letter on February 12, 1999: February 12, 1999 Scott Browning, Ph.D. Chairman Department of Counseling Psychology and Human Services Chestnut Hill College 9601 Germantown Ave. Philadelphia, PA. 19118-2693 Dear Scott: Despite my phone call to you in October of 1998, your voice mail message soon thereafter in which you said you'd be sending me my evaluations for the summer 1998 course (GRCP 499--Introduction to Graduate Counseling Psychology), and the follow-up e-mail (copy enclosed) I sent to you on October 13, 1998, I STILL have not received my evaluations by students from you for that course. You were obviously in possession of them back then because you told me they were very good. Since it was my understanding, based on the letter I received from Bill Walker (copy enclosed), that the problems you and Professor Klee caused me were resolved, I would appreciate it very much if you would send me, (along with the evaluations you said you would send me in October), a letter from you explaining my status as an adjunct professor in your department. Please refer to the letter from Bill Walker carefully. Since the problems caused by you and Professor Klee had so much to do with what you both apparently considered the inappropriateness of my perspective in an academic setting, I thought you would be interested in the enclosed correspondence from the book review editor at SOCIETY magazine, published by Transaction Publishers at Rutgers University. I was invited to write the book review because of the very perspective you and Dr. Klee apparently find so distasteful. Thank you very much. Sincerely yours, Jeffrey A. Schaler, Ph.D. cc: William T. Walker, Ph.D. enclosures ***** About two weeks later I received the evaluations. All of the students gave me very high marks. None of them were critical or negative about my teaching. Dr. Browning scribbled the following message to me on an index card: "Dear Jeff, Here are the evaluations you requested. Scott" Since I'd not been asked back to teach I began to realize that the whole meeting and letter from Dr. Walker regarding academic freedom was nothing but a charade. Neither Dr. Browning nor Dr. Walker refused to have anything more to do with me. The Germans have a term for this: Todschweigen [Tod = death + schweigen = silence, thus "death by silence"]. ***** July 16, 1999 William T. Walker, Ph.D. Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty Chestnut Hill College 9601 Germantown Ave. Philadelphia, PA. 19118-2693 Dear Bill: In your letter to me dated August 18, 1998 (copy enclosed), you apologized on behalf of Chestnut Hill College for "the inconvenience which may have resulted [from the problems caused by Drs. Browning and Klee] and [wrote that you] will work to establish procedures which will curtail the recurrence of such a situation." You ended your letter with the following: "If you have any questions now or later, please do not hesitate to contact me directly." I don't have any questions Bill, however, I do have a few statements. It is now just short of a year since our August 12, 1998 meeting with Scott Browning. As you know, nothing constructive came out of that meeting. The discrimination against me continued. You didn't do anything about it. I trusted you Bill. I dropped the request for investigation by the American Association of University Professors because you gave me your word that the discrimination you acknowledged Drs. Browning and Klee had committed against me would not continue. Now I'll have to reinstate the request for investigation. You didn't keep your word. You misled me into believing you were solving the problem of infringement upon my academic freedom exhibited by Drs. Browning and Klee. In your letter you also wrote: "Chestnut Hill College is committed to the standards of academic freedom as expressed by the American Association of University Professors (see attachment). Further, we will not tolerate any form of discrimination against anyone on the basis of personal beliefs and/or political orientation." Those two statements were dishonest ones, Bill. Chestnut Hill College most certainly is not committed to the standards of academic freedom as expressed by the AAUP. Moreover, CHC most certainly will tolerate discrimination against faculty members on the basis of personal beliefs and/or political orientation. Of course, I no longer have any interest in teaching at CHC. However, I do want to set the record straight as I take this unfortunate matter into the court of public opinion. Sincerely yours, Jeffrey A. Schaler, Ph.D. cc: President Carol Jean Vale, SSJ, Ph.D., Dr. Scott Browning enclosure ***** TODSCHWEIGEN No response. Nothing. Todschweigen. Dr. Browning is seeking accreditation of his program from the American Psychological Association. The End