Ferris State University in Michigan has suspended a?professor for posting a?provocative, often-profane video for students ahead of the new semester.

Barry Mehler said in the video that he¡¯s fearful of teaching in person during Covid-19 because he¡¯s 74 years old, and that he¡¯s retiring at the end of the semester. So while it¡¯s possible that being put on administrative leave isn¡¯t the worst of outcomes for him, Professor Mehler¡¯s faculty union says the suspension is an attack on academic freedom generally.

¡°Back to the show,¡± Professor Mehler said in the , in which he first appears wearing an astronaut-style helmet. ¡°I?want to introduce myself before we actually meet F?to?F, as we say these days, which everybody knows means fuck to fuck ¨C which really means that we¡¯re all fucked.¡±

Professor Mehler, a tenured historian of science and racism, told students that when they see him in?person in class, he¡¯ll be wearing the $300 (?220) helmet because it has high-efficiency particulate air filters to protect ¡°both me and you from this deadly virus that¡¯s going around¡±.

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Professor Mehler then delivered a profanity-laden soliloquy about how no ¡°cocksucker of an administrator is going to tell me how to teach my classes because I¡¯m a fucking tenured professor. So if you want to go complain to your dean, fuck you. Go ahead. I¡¯m retiring at the end of this year, and I?couldn¡¯t give a flying fuck any longer.¡±

He added: ¡°You people are just vectors of disease to me, and I?don¡¯t want to be anywhere near you. So keep your fucking distance. If you want to talk to me, come to my Zoom.¡±

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Professor Mehler later explained that his speech was inspired by a similarly vulgar soliloquy from the HBO television show Deadwood, about life in a gold-mining town, and that he used the opportunity to address the concept of plagiarism.

Things got stranger from here, with Professor Mehler citing Calvinism and predestination as the reasons he¡¯ll assign students¡¯ grades randomly, regardless of individual effort (he later said students could earn an?A, but he doesn¡¯t explicitly say he¡¯s joking about random grades). He also said that if students want to protect their grandparents from Covid-19, they should protect him, too, as he¡¯s old enough to be their grandfather.

¡°When I look out at a classroom filled with 50 students, I?see 50 selfish kids who don¡¯t give a shit whether grandpa lives or dies, and if you don¡¯t expose your grandpa to a possible infection with Covid, then stay the fuck away from me. If you don¡¯t give a shit about whether grandpa lives or dies, by all means, come to?class.¡±

Professor Mehler continued, ¡°Before any of you go running to complain, and it happens every semester ¨C ¡®Dr?Mehler said I?shouldn¡¯t come to class¡¯ ¨C let me clarify my attendance policy to?you.¡± Professors, he said, ¡°have complete discretion with regard to attendance policy¡±, and ¡°Everything you need to earn an?A is available to you on our [online] Canvas page.¡±

There is ¡°no benefit whatsoever from coming to class¡±, Professor Mehler said. ¡°I?will not take questions in class, because I¡¯m wearing this fucking helmet in order to stay alive. So please come. Enjoy the show. I¡¯ll be there regularly, because I?have no?choice. You, on the other hand, have a?choice. Thank you very much.¡±

Professor Mehler said the show was sponsored by Camel cigarettes, an example of ¡°pure capitalism, turning death into profit¡±.

Professor Mehler didn¡¯t respond to a request for comment. It remains unclear exactly what his intentions were ¨C or how he feels about being put on administrative leave.

Charles Bacon, professor of physics and chemistry and president of Ferris State¡¯s faculty union, said the union considered Professor Mehler¡¯s suspension from teaching to be an ¡°attack on academic freedom and a part of the continued attempt nationally to enforce uniformity on faculty and intimidate higher education faculty by suppressing intellectual discourse¡±.

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Asked about speculation about Professor Mehler¡¯s well-being, Professor Bacon said, ¡°I?assure you, Barry did not have a breakdown. In fact, his style, which he developed over the last decade, is to be controversial in order to challenge students¡¯ inherent mental models and biases. It?is something that we all strive to?do.¡±

Professor Mehler¡¯s classes tended to be ¡°extremely popular¡±, Professor Bacon also said, ¡°in particular because he challenges students¡¯ assumptions and makes the class extremely interesting. In fact, we have had administrators visit his class and come away with statements like, ¡®I?wish I¡¯d had a?professor like you when I?was in?college.¡¯¡±

Ferris State certainly hasn¡¯t praised Professor Mehler¡¯s pedagogy in this instance, saying in a statement that it is ¡°aware of a?course video distributed to students, in early January, by a faculty member believed to be Prof Barry Mehler. The faculty member has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation.¡±

President David Eisler said in a separate statement: ¡°I?was shocked and appalled by this video. It is profane, offensive and disturbing and in no way reflects our university or its values.¡±

Sometimes professors do use stunts to get students¡¯ attention or turn their assumptions about the world upside down. Sometimes those stunts are wild: a professor of physics at Columbia University stripped down to his underwear onstage and beheaded a teddy bear during the opening lecture of his frontiers of science course in 2013, . The professor in that case, Emlyn Hughes, said this at the time: ¡°In order to learn quantum mechanics, you have to strip to your raw, erase all the garbage from your brain and start over again.¡±

Professor Mehler¡¯s meaning was less clear. But it¡¯s clearly tied up in ongoing fights between administrators and faculty members about mandatory face-to-face teaching during the Omicron variant-driven surge in Covid-19 cases.

Professor Bacon, of the Ferris State faculty union, said: ¡°We tried to get accommodations last semester for those faculty, like Barry, that had legitimate concerns for going back to face-to-face. Even faculty with immune-compromised systems were denied the option to convert to online.¡± This semester, he added, ¡°is also mostly face-to-face, with no accommodation for faculty, such as Barry, who would like to do online¡±.

Ferris State began this semester in person, as planned. A?university spokesman confirmed that no professors had been granted waivers to move designated face-to-face classes online. Students enrolled in face-to-face courses may request remote accommodations, however.

The university encourages but does not require that students be vaccinated against Covid-19. Masks must be worn indoors.

This is an edited version of a story which .

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