Louisiana Voice

Why the urgency to can Dr. Brian Salvatore at LSUS?

I mean after all, he’s not the only faculty member at the school who is outspoken on political matters. Associate political science professor Jeffrey Sadow has been far more vocal in defending all things Republican and attacking all things Democrat on the Hayride blog for years now, which apparently gives him free rein to pontificate – in contrast to Salvatore, who has made the school’s administration a tad uncomfortable with his criticism of toxic chemical disposal and open meetings violations.

Now, why would LSU find it intolerable for Salvatore to discuss toxic pollution of the air, land and water? I mean, aren’t we all concerned about that?

Well, when you’re a major university that receives mega-funding grants from corporate interests that are directly involved in the business of the toxic poisoning of the air, land and waterways of this state, or of malfeasance, then you become a bit sensitive to such criticism, any criticism actually.

This heavy-handed method of dealing with free speech goes all the way back to the firings of Drs. Fred Cerise and Roxanne Townsend for the sin of SPEAKING OUT against proposed policy.

Jeff Landry, when he was still attorney general, attempted to get Bob Mann FIRED from his professorship at LSU after Mann was critical of the way Landry had dispatched a “flunkie” from his office to the LSU Faculty Senate meeting to read a letter attacking covid vaccines.

Then, we have the story about the LSU School of Dentistry’s sacking of Dr. John Kent, the firing of STEPHEN HATFIELD who was erroneously implicated in the mailings of anthrax envelopes in 2001 – and Hatfield’s boss, Stephen Guillot, director of the National Center for Biomedical Research and Training and the Academy for Counter-Terrorist Education.

And most of us remember the firing of Ivor van Heerden for his CRITICISM of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over the levees that failed during Hurricane Katrina, causing extensive flooding of New Orleans. Well, van Heerden sued LSU and prevailed in a multi-million-dollar settlement.

Actually, the Hatfield and van Heerden episodes pre-date the Cerise and Townsend kerfuffles.

So, why was LSU so uber-sensitive to criticism on the part of its professors – or in Hatfield’s case, so eager to rid itself of a possible suspect in a terror attack before the first shred of evidence was present, and indeed, never was?

Because LSU receives millions upon millions of dollars in grants from the Corps of Engineers, federal law enforcement and the medical community. The last thing it wanted – far more than say, protecting the rights of its employees – was to jeopardize the continued money flow from cash cows. So much for justice and fairness being top priorities.

Having said that, let’s now take a deep dive into the LSUS administration that so desperately wants to destroy Salvatore, who has fought the proposed outdoor burning of toxic CHEMICAL WASTE at facilities in MINDEN and Colfax and in the process, accused of LSUS of possibly contributing to the problem with its own chemical wastes.

So, what about the guy who is behind the effort to show Salvatore the door?

That would be Chancellor Robert Smith who hand-picked the ad-hoc committee which heard Salvatore’s case and who has now taken the committee’s termination recommendation up the chain to LSU system President William Tate who will almost certainly uphold the committee and Smith for fear of antagonizing dictator Gov. Landry.

Having said that, let’s take a look at Smith’s curriculum vitae.

Smith recently joined LSUS after leaving his position as Provost at Valdosta State University last July. While at Valdosta State, his claims to fame were hiring a dean of science and mathematics without receiving the consent of the faculty.

That dean, Keith Walters, was arrested as a SEXUAL PREDATOR who was accused of soliciting sex online from 13-year-old children. After Walters was arrested, Smith appointed a new dean who subsequently “violated the academic freedom of VSU biology professor LESLIE JONES who was teaching her students peer reviewed science about the biological basis of gender, ‘woke s**t’ in the words of the PARENT of a student who called the university to complain,” according to an article in The Spectator.

Professor Jones subsequently sought legal assistance from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).

Smith, at LSUS, hired a human resources director who, for the past eight years, has maintained a Facebook profile cover photo of his fraternity that included a simulated lynching. Did I mention that he’s the HR director at a public state university?

Smith, of course, didn’t see the photo as racist, but simply “poor taste,” according to the post below that was supposed to be “confidential.” Smith added that he attended church with the HR director, Robert Lindsey and that Lindsey was also “close friends with Chief of Staff Kim Ramsey.”

Well, then, that certainly clears up that little lynching photo issue.

So, it appears that controversy is no stranger to Smith – just as pandering to corporate interests at the expense of faculty members is no stranger to LSU.

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