Bhattacharya’s expulsion from university, and slippery-slope parallels

Kieran Bhattacharya was expelled from the University of Virginia medical school. A journalistic account is here.

The university claims his persistent questioning at a panel discussion and his follow-up resistance to the university’s orders violated “the school’s professionalism standards.”

Professionalism cuts both ways at a university — both for students and for faculty/administrators — but it sets higher standards for professors and deans who should not only expect but encourage independence of mind, strong debate, and challenges during discussions of controversial issues.

So: Initially, was the student too pushy — or were the faculty/administrative too defensive? In the escalating follow-ups, was the student too rebellious — or was the university too authoritarian?

Here is the danger: abuses of power lie along a spectrum of severity, and slippery slopes are a real problem. In a mostly civilized nation, we have a leading university’s authorities dealing with a student who was not accepting and compliant but questioning and challenging them. In response, the university:

* suggested counseling for the student, but “that suggestion soon became a mandate, court records show.”

* ordered the student to attend an official hearing after the student questioned the need for counseling.

* at the hearing, “the student recorded audio and took photographs of the attendees and was criticized for doing so.”

* then expelled him from the university.

On the slippery slope:

* Soviet communism required psychiatric “counseling” for dissident citizens who were deemed disruptive.

* Catholic authorities silenced Galileo for arguing persistently against theologically approved cosmology.

* Athenian democracy killed gadfly Socrates for challenging it with uncomfortable questions.

Thomas Jefferson was founder of the University of Virginia, of which he said: