History Major Spotlights Antics of 'Profane Professor' at UGA
by Jim Brown
September 22, 2004
(AgapePress) - A University of Georgia professor is being investigated after allegations he bullied a conservative student. The student alleges that the history instructor told students he hated President Bush and repeatedly used profanity to describe Bush and Vice President Cheney.David Horowitz of FrontPageMag.com reports Professor John Morrow "is the object of a university inquiry into his behavior in the classroom." Sophomore history major Brad Alexander claims Professor Morrow used the entire first day of his class on World Wars I and II to issue a profanity-laced diatribe against the Bush administration and its decision to go to war in Iraq. In an article entitled "Profane Professor," Alexander offers several examples from what he describes as Morrow's "90-minute tirade."
The history major says he dropped out of the "History of the World Wars" course following that episode on August 19. "I just don't think this is really accessible in the classroom, but I wish there would be kind of a standard where partisanship is really left out of the classroom, period," Alexander says. "I think it's appropriate to discuss it in the right classes, but not in the way that it was done [in Morrow's class]."
The student says he dropped the class because he felt Morrow did not welcome dissenting views. "It's not an environment where you can communicate with him without being shot down," Alexander says, explaining an interchange he had with Morrow.
"I asked him a question; he answered my question. Then he asked me question at one point, and I didn't hear his question. I asked him to repeat it, and all he said was, 'Well, at least I gave you the courtesy of listening to what you had to say.' I just simply didn't hear his question. I wanted him to repeat it, but he wouldn't."
Morrow has responded to Alexander's allegations by saying he does not punish students who disagree with him, and that Alexander "lacks the courage of his convictions." The history professor, who does not deny using profanity in his lectures, joined the University of Georgia faculty in 1988 and has served as both department chair and associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
