We were extremely interested to see Margaret Winters’ open letter to the SIUC faculty (an advertisement Feb. 6 in the Daily Egyptian). We feel very strongly about several of the points that Winters raises and would like to comment on them, but we are afraid to do so.

The administration’s counterproposal states, Section 1. Tenure-Track Faculty. The Board reserves the right to suspend or discharge tenure-track (i.e., non-tenured) faculty at any time, with or without cause.

So, we cannot respond to Dr. Winters. But if we could lose our jobs for disagreeing with Winters, could we also be fired for what we teach or what we publish? What if our deans do not believe in evolution or neoclassical economics, could we be fired for teaching these topics? How can we find out what is and what is not permissible to say? Will the administration provide us (non-tenured faculty) with a list of approved topics so we can stay out of trouble?

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Regardless of the administration’s (possibly benign) intention, the very existence of such a proposal clearly has the effect of a non-tenured faculty gag order. This cannot be healthy for our University and is antithetical to the values of a university community. We hope the administration will remove the without cause clause from their next proposal so there will be no restraints on the free exchange of ideas.