English professor William Penn was relieved of his teaching responsibilities by the Office of the Provost on Thursday but will remain a full-time employee of the university after an anti-Republican lecture last week that drew fire from university officials and students.
“The dean of the College of Arts and Letters and a representative from the provost’s office met with Penn, who acknowledged that some of his comments were inappropriate, disrespectful and offensive, and may have negatively affected the learning environment,” MSU spokesman Kent Cassella said in a statement. “Penn’s teaching duties have been reassigned to others. Students’ education will continue as scheduled with alternate instructors.”
During the class, Penn spoke against Republicans for several minutes, verbally engaging with students in the process, according to in-class video taken by a student and posted on the conservative news site CampusReform.org.
Penn called Republicans “cheap,” and said they had “raped” the country, among other things.
The State News’ attempt to contact Penn at his home Thursday were unsuccessful.
When reached by The State News on Wednesday, Penn said he had been told by the provost to “keep a lid on it” in regard to the situation.
Derek Wright, an actuarial science junior, was in the Integrated Arts and Humanities class on the day the video was recorded. Wright sent out a series of tweets during the class chronicling some of the professor’s antics and his own opinions on the lecture.
He said the politics of the situation are not important. What is important is that on that day, Penn failed as an instructor.
“I wanted him to teach the class,” Wright said. “Which he wasn’t doing.”
Wright said he was sitting in the back of class that day, but still could see many people with surprised looks on their faces.
Wright said that class Thursday was full and students walked to class through TV camera trucks.
On Thursday, Wright said the class teaching assistants read an email sent from Dean of the College of Arts and Letters Karin Wurst, apologizing on behalf of the department and Penn to any student who “was offended or made to feel uncomfortable during the class.” The students then were dismissed seven minutes into the class.
Mobo Ayeni, an English senior, had Penn last year for an introductory fiction class last year and said that although he wasn’t surprised at the remarks, he viewed Penn’s style as a teaching technique.
“It was his way of engaging students,” he said.
Ayeni said while similar lectures were common, Penn never singled anyone out, and he calls Penn, “One of the most helpful teachers I’ve had.”
MSU Board of Trustees member Mitch Lyons, who took to Twitter following the release of the video, said he thought a decision on the professor’s status needed to be made quickly.
Lyons said Penn’s punishment is “not fulfilled yet,” and that the Office of the Provost and the president are still looking into “his role in the university,” adding that the lecture was not a good learning environment.
MSU Board of Trustees member Brian Mosallam agreed with Lyons that a decision was needed quickly.
“I felt like we had to move swiftly and appropriately,” he said
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