I should have done this a while ago, but I finally got around to writing the alumni association for my alma mater to explain to them how the university’s actions are making it impossible for me to donate to them. Specifically, Peter Navarro, faux academic and White House Renfield, should not be a professor at University of California at Irvine. Yeah, I know, he’s emeritus, not full time, but he still should not be on the faculty. Here’s what I wrote them, a couple of personal details removed from the original text (I wanted them to know I was a real alum):
I am a UC Irvine graduate. I am writing you to inform you that I will not donate to UC Irvine as long as Peter Navarro is on the faculty.
This is not a freedom of speech issue, but one of scholarly integrity. He already called into question his fitness for his academic post by inventing quotes from a fictional source for five of his books. (I will leave it to others to judge the quality of his work overall.) When I was a graduate student at UC Irvine, I would have reported a student for disciplinary action who invented sources.
But that is only the beginning of Navarro’s unfitness for his position in the Paul Merage School of Business. In his role as White House adviser, he has made pronouncements on medical and scientific matters, even though he has no expertise, credentials or even minimal training in these areas. He has been supportive of efforts to politicize the work of government scientists. He has evaded his own words on climate change, contributing further to the anti-science policies of the Trump Administration.
He has embraced power over truth. He has joined the ranks of people throwing stones at scholars and experts. His words and actions are in opposition to the ethos and mission of the university, including the free exchange of ideas. My argument for his unfitness for an academic post, therefore, is not a censuring of his words. I am merely pointing out his support for the silencing and punishment of others for their free speech, and his apparent belief that political loyalty should trump science.
By continuing to employ Navarro on the faculty, UC Irvine is responsible for supporting everything I just described. Therefore, my decision not to donate to the university should not be difficult to understand.
Thank you for listening.
If any of you are graduates of UC Berkeley, you might consider a similar message about John Yoo.
