When it comes to Professor John Yoo (or Captain Waterboard, as I refer to him in my head), there seems to be a fair amount of contention on the Berkeley Law campus and in the Bay Area in general. The Grand Lake theater has turned their call for his ousting from the campus into their marquee. Code Pink has taken it upon themselves to protest his continuing employment.
Dean Christopher Edley, however, has taken to the streets (or The Contra Costa Times, whichever you prefer) to defend Yoo's academic freedom and to clarify that his school lacks the resources for a significant investigation into the kind of wrongdoing Yoo is accused of.
"I also said that a university
does not have the institutional competence to conduct investigations
involving classified intelligence, or to establish rules for behavior
distant from the functions of a university," Edley said in the opinion piece/letter.
What I get from that is that, basically, Edley can't fire Yoo until someone prosecutes him. Your mileage with that conjecture may vary; I think it might be an ultra-sensitive way to avoid high profile conflict. I'm pretty sure that tenured professors have been forced out of their schools for less than suspicion of war crimes.
Regardless, the debate wages on. And on. Some of the most interesting commentary on the subject has come from Nuts & Boalts. Check out their item on Edley's opinion piece here (and be sure to read the 20+ comments for the real nuggets).
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