Keith John Sampson, whom I wrote about back in May, is unfortunately still going round with Indiana University/Purdue University-Indianapolis.

Sampson is both an employee of the university and a student. Several months ago IUPUI’s Affirmative Action Office said that Mr. Sampson had engaged in racial harrassment by repeatedly being seen reading a book with KKK in the title. Never mind that it was an anti-KKK book.

Sampson found assistance then through the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) and the ACLU, such that the university eventually reversed its position.  Some people can’t leave well enough alone, however, much less behave graciously, which in this case would have meant issuing an apology to Mr. Sampson.

I recently issued an invitation to Mr. Sampson to become a regular contributor to BureaucracyBlog. Here’s an excerpt of his response:

I thought my situation was over here at IUPUI but now I find that the IUPUI News Center, run by Rich Schneider, is still telling members of the media that the problem was not in my reading the book in question but some other actions that they can not reveal to the press.

The latest reporter to get this line of B.S. was Dorothy Rabinowitz, of the Wall Street Journal. She was told that I still did something wrong and that I know what it was but IUPUI won’t tell the press. The WSJ is going with a story probably this Monday July 7th.

Now that’s behavior unbecoming a university.  If Sampson did something, put it out there.  If you can’t put it out front for whatever reason, keep it to yourself.  Don’t engage in a smear campaign that robs Sampson of specifics against which he can defend himself.

It is not, at this point, Sampson who should be defending himself, but IUPUI.  How many times do they have to act sloppily, and even petulantly before they get it?  How many times can they do this without their students and Trustees getting agitated about it enough to jerk knots in the tails of those who persist in such shabby conduct?

Shame on IUPUI.  I’ll be keeping a lookout for the WSJ story.

Peace.

Deborah Alicen