Forsyth Technical Community College: Dismissal of Professor for Criticizing Iraq War
Forsyth Technical Community College (FTCC) writing instructor Elizabeth Ito has been dismissed for using a brief part of her class to discuss the war in Iraq. Ito criticized the Iraq war in a writing class on March 28, 2003, while the ground invasion was still underway. Her remarks, which later served as the basis for a writing assignment, lasted only ten minutes, but as a result administrators at the college decided not to renew her contract. FTCC President Gary Green subsequently ignored a request from the FIRE, sent on Ito's behalf, for an explanation of the college's actions.
Case Materials
"Writing Instructor Loses Job for Discussing Iraq War in Class," FIRE Press Release, January 27, 2004: In Winston-Salem, NC, Forsyth Technical Community College (FTCC) writing instructor Elizabeth Ito has been dismissed for criticizing the war in Iraq during a writing class. Her remarks lasted only ten minutes—and served as the basis for a subsequent writing assignment—but prompted administrators at the college not to renew her contract. FIRE is defending Ito's academic, moral, and legal rights.
"Under the Radar: Political Correctness Never Died," Cathy Young, Reason, July 1, 2004: These days, talking about political correctness in academia
makes you sound like a quaint throwback to the 1990s. It
seems utterly irrelevant to the post-9/11 era, a threat dwarfed
by (depending on whom you listen to) either terrorism or
losing our liberties to the war on terrorism. Eric Wasserman,
executive director of the Foundation for Individual Rights in
Education (FIRE), says many people have a knee-jerk
reaction to the very phrase political correctness, seeing it as an old story.
