Semi-Outrageous Conundrum of the Day

[muscadine]

I've been looking into this story about a biology professor being sued for his letter of recommendation criteria. Lots of good stuff out there.

Dini in his own words, including his LoR criteria

Calpundit weighs in here and here.

Some insightful comments by Mark Kleiman here in support of Dini's ideas, but critical of his method.

(I find myself agreeing the most with them)

Chris Mooney of CSICOP believes this is part of a bigger picture.

A long series of comments discussing the issue on Patrick Nielson Hayden's blog. PNH takes a similar stance to Kleiman.

Some less favorable opinions of Dini can be found:
In this and other entries by Eugene Volokh
In this entry by Clayton Cramer

Comments

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

If there evidence were presented to indicate that students who believe in Creationism were having difficulty getting letters of recommendation from any professor on their campus, I would have a very much easier time considering this to be a meaningful ethical dilemma that I should struggle over long and hard.

If this is not a widespread phenomenon, however - and the fact that it's getting all this coverage in blogs and elsewhere seems to me to suggest that it's probably not - then I think the student is just throwing a silly fit over something that isn't meaningful at all. People have lots of professors during their time in college. If one of them doesn't want to write you a letter of recommendation, that's his business. His own personal "religion" of sorts - like if a professor can't come to work on one particular day each year because of a religious holiday, allowances can be made, and if a professor can't write recommendations for certain students because of a pseudo-religious quirky personal belief, allowances should also be made. Go to another professor. It's only when they all refuse recommendations to the same group of students that the issue becomes one with actual effects and needs to be brought under legal scrutiny.

Re:

[legolastn.livejournal.com]

Did you read my original link in yesterday's Outrage of the Day post? The blogger wrote a brilliant "letter of recommendation" for the student.

I agree with your line of thinking. Professors can refuse to write a letter of recommendation for pretty much any reason. And, generally, if they aren't going to write a good recommendation, etiquette is that they should decline. That he is up front about his criteria is, to my way of thinking, commendable. OK, so if you don't fit his criteria, better start looking for other professors to suck up to get to know.

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

Yes, that was an excellent letter of recommendation indeed.

[the-marionette.livejournal.com]

Seems silly to me. Teachers can refuse to write letters of recommendation for students for whatever reason they want. Sometimes you'd actually like for them to refuse. A co-worker of mine's daughter got the most appalling letter of recommendation from her guidance counselor. The woman spelled about half of the letter incorrectly. The grammar and sentence structure were non-existant. The whole tone of the letter actually made it sound like one of her friends had written the letter and not her guidance counselor. The counselor actually went on to state how she believes my co-worker's daughter to embody all the lyrics of a band's latest album. I don't remember which band. She even signed her name, Vicki, with little hearts over the i's. Needless to say, my co-worker was miffed and threw it straight into the trash.