A university professor received a suspension letter from his school's dean last week after criticising a fellow teacher.
Dean Richard Holz informed John McAdams, a political science professor for 37 years at Marquette University, that he is banned from the campus and his actions will be under investigation.
"You are relieved of all teaching duties and all other faculty activities. You are to remain off campus during that time," Holz wrote in the letter to McAdams.
The suspension with pay came after he criticised teaching assistant Cheryl Abbate in his blog. McAdams blogged about his disapproval when Abbate forbade a student from discussing his opinion on gay rights in her "Theory of Ethics" class.
In McAdams' blog, he described how Abbate apparently told the student after class that any opposition to gay marriage is offensive speech and will not be tolerated in her class. She also told the student that if he disagreed with her, he could drop the class.
"Abbate, of course, was just using a tactic typical among liberals now," McAdams wrote. "Opinions with which they disagree are not merely wrong, and are not to be argued against on their merits, but are deemed 'offensive' and need to be shut up."
According to The Christian Post, the Catholic university has been requiring its faculty to view an anti-harassment training video, which states that anti-homosexual talk is considered harassment and the faculty should report any employee that speaks out in opposition of gay marriage.
McAdams suspected that one of the faculties reported his blog post to the administration.
"A lot of politically correct faculty has wanted my head on a pike," McAdams told Fox News.
The university also released a statement to a local Fox News affiliate explaining the professor's suspension relates to a "personal attack."
"As stated in our harassment policy, the university will not tolerate personal attacks or harassment of or by students, faculty and staff," the statement says. "To be clear, we will take action to address those concerns. We deplore hatred and abuse directed at a member of our community in any format."
On his blog, McAdams said the school was "not a Catholic university" for not allowing debate on gay marriages in class.
"How many students, especially in politically correct departments like Philosophy, simply stifle their disagreement, or worse yet get indoctrinated into the views of the instructor, since those views are the only ideas allowed, and no alternative views are aired?" McAdams asked. "Like the rest of academia, Marquette is less and less a real university, and when gay marriage cannot be discussed, certainly not a Catholic university."
Holz's letter of notice to McAdams, enclosed with a copy of the university's harassment policy, did not specify the reason for suspension.
McAdams further claimed on his blog that the university is violating its own policy to inform the offender of the specifics of the violation and of any witnesses against the faculty member.
