An odd exchange over a maybe-muzzled professor is playing out in the Times-Picayune letter’s column. In May ksjtracker posted an interview by its book editor with the LSU prof, Ivor van Heerden, author of a post-Katrina book and head of the school’s hurricane center. In it he said the university has at times interfered with his conversations with reporters. What is curious is the response by the university’s vice chancellor of university relations in a letter to the editor. It says LSU is devoted to free speech, but wants its faculty never to discuss things with the press in fields outside their formal training. And it says civil engineering (as in levees) falls outside a geologist and hurricane expert’s scope. Huh? Sounds like freedom to talk as long as it is about what one is told to talk about.
Items:
LSU Letter to Editor here;
Another reader’s letter today here;
Tracker previous post here.
Direct link to the original story here.
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