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

Media Coverage

  • "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.