The fight for Professor Barry Mehler

Update: irrelevant of any outcome (win or lose) all proceeds from this fundraiser will be donated to FIRE - the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.  Their support has been amazing and their cause is worth supporting.

Cliff-notes version:  My father sent out a semester introduction video to his students as an unlisted YouTube link.  In that video:

He explains plagiarism to his students by adapting a soliloquy from the 2004 HBO show Deadwood, with the same profanity Deadwood uses, thus making an otherwise dry explanation of plagiarism memorable.

He tells students he assigns grades randomly before meeting them, based on the Calvinist doctrine of Predestination. (No, he doesn't actually grade that way, it is a challenge to his students to think critically and to not blindly believe what they are told.)

He asks students to not attend in-person class as he has designed his courses to be taught remotely but he, personally, has no choice but to be there in-person. He is 74 years old, around half the student body is unvaccinated, and he doesn't want to die.

All of the controversial parts are delivered in the same tone and with similar profanity as the initial Deadwood soliloquy.

Someone put a clipped-together shortened version of the video with only the most controversial parts and no context. It went viral.

The University saw bad press, quickly suspended him, erased him from their faculty website, disavowed him to the press, etc..

Roughly speaking, that's where we are now. He's fighting the University's response and it will have to go through court since they won't admit to administrative overreach.

Useful links:

*Original semester introduction video that went viral.
 
Original Reddit discussion thread  from when the video first went viral, lots of revealing discussion there including one former student of his.
 
Unlisted AMA Professor Mehler did on Reddit  (unlisted in this case meaning moderators did not publish it to the public face of the r/IAmA subreddit) - several of his former students appear here.
 
*Professor Mehler's press release  and explanation of the video.
 
FIRE page for this fight.
 
Interview with the Ferris Torch student newspaper.
 
Opinion piece from the Ferris Torch.
 
Professor Mehler's interview on WZZM13.
 
Full uncut WZZM13 interview video.

....

 

Hello everyone, allow me to introduce my father, who this is about.

 

 

 

 

Dr. Barry Mehler, tenured Professor of History and Humanities at Ferris State University, has been suspended from his job by the Ferris Administration after one of his semester introduction videos, which was originally distributed only to his students as an unlisted YouTube link, went viral after they shared it. In this video he puts on a performance with attribution to the 2004 HBO TV show Deadwood, which includes, to the amusement of his students, a prolific amount of profanity. He makes ridiculous statements about grading all his students randomly for the semester before he ever meets them, as a check to get them to think critically and remind them to not believe everything they are told.

 

More recently, delivered in the same theme, he also speaks on the inadequate COVID measures the University has taken, and since he is 74 years old, with around half the student body unvaccinated, and would prefer not to die, asks his students not to attend class in-person. He has authority at least over attendance for his own students, and has since designed his courses to be taught remotely, thus giving his students the option to keep everyone involved safe and skip the classroom. The University, however, refuses to extend the same courtesy to my father, and he is given no choice but to be there in-person.

 

The (then-unlisted) introduction video rapidly grew to hundreds of thousands of views as his students shared it and the random whims of the internet took it from there.

 

Early on, someone put together a shortened version which only had the performance parts and lacked the context that it was not, in fact, an unhinged rant.

 

Shortly thereafter, one website published an article that was based on this shorter, no context version. More sites and news agencies picked up the story, initially based on the tone of the first story, which portrayed my father as an insane old man, ranting and swearing at his students, and presented his performance as genuine instead of theater.

 

The Administration quickly suspended my father from his job and erased him from their faculty page, as though he had never worked at the university that he has taught at for over thirty years. President Eisler further defamed my father to the media, saying he was, quote: “shocked and appalled by this video” and that “It is profane, offensive and disturbing and in no way reflects our university or its values,” end quote.

 

I should mention here that my father has been teaching this way for over a decade and has received significant acclaim from the university for these exact teaching methods.

 

As one example, he was nominated for Ferris’s Distinguished Teacher Award and was a finalist in the selection process with the congratulatory email below:

 

“The [Distinguished Teacher Award] Committee would like to express its appreciation for the great effort you put into the selection process and for welcoming us into your classes. We all benefited from the experience. The Committee regards your status as a finalist to be a very significant achievement. You are an exemplary teacher and Ferris State University is privileged to have you as a faculty member.”

 

Jennifer Lamberts, Chair

 

Distinguished Teacher Award Committee

 

cc. President Eisler

 

Provost Blake

(Dated: March 16, 2017)

 

The University has also given a merit increase for his teaching style. Translation: we, the University, approve of your teaching style and are giving you a pay raise because of it.

 

Given this rather long history with his teaching style being *very* well known to the university, their approval of it, and even giving him a pay raise for it, it seems a bit… disingenuous to hear President Eisler say either that he was ‘shocked’, as if he had no idea, or to hear Eisler claim that my father’s teaching style “in no way reflects our university or it’s values” - immediately, publicly disavowing my father to the media.

 

The unilateral actions the Ferris Administration have taken in removing my father from his teaching role, and in slandering his good name, are unacceptable, and my father is determined to fight back: for Freedom of Speech, for Academic Freedom, for the privilege to teach his students for his final year before he accepts his well-earned retirement, and, perhaps most importantly of all, for the sake of everyone endangered by this Administration’s reckless disregard of COVID safety precautions - especially for those also concerned for their health and safety, but who are not in a position to speak out, for fear of retaliation in the workplace, and the threat of losing their jobs.

 

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, or FIRE (thefire.org), has graciously supported my father’s initial legal response to this violation of his First Amendment rights and of his Academic Freedom. Their support can only extend so far however, and that is why I am speaking to you now.

 

The fight for my father to resume teaching and finish out his last year for his students, as well as the separate defamation lawsuit to clear his good name, are costly. His legal counsel has estimated that it will likely cost around $20,000. Maybe more, maybe less, but in that ballpark.

 

Should he win that lawsuit, and should he be awarded damages to include coverage of legal fees, your donations would instead go to the FIRE organization, to aid them in fighting for the rights of other Students and Faculty who need their aid.

 

I am asking for your help in this fight for a Professor’s right to speak freely, for his right to shout to the world: “I do not deserve to die to earn this University an extra buck”, and to teach the final year of his classes just as he has been teaching for years.

 

Thank you.