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White contest and that's lucky to two hundred and two hundred. I'm Billy Cunningham,
the Great America and all over the nation. There's efforts to regiment thinking
and academic work. There's one way of looking at things. There's not two
or three or four. Many times you might hear an argument. I know
when I did a lot of appell at work, I would hear an argument
on one side, and then I would hear the argument on the other side,
and I made me to reconsider my first viewpoint and whether it's Stanford College
of Law that has circuit court judges being shouted down, or a commencement speaker
an NYU College of Law that referred to Jews as mass murderers and mass exterminators
of the Palestinian people. Many times on law school and college campuses, like
in the University of Cincinnati where a female study student referred to women as biologically
female and she was given a zero because that was perceived as being hate speech.
Another story is percolating involving Professor Scott Gerber at Ohio Northern University He's written
that he's objected publicly as the vice chair of the University Council, an elected
faculty governan's body, and in newspaper ads and on television to d EI efforts
that don't include viewpoint diversity and would lead to a legal discrimination and employment.
And the same week he was let out of his classroom by police, he
published an op ed defending Justice Clarence Thomas right to have friends, even rich
ones. Joining me now is that same professor Scott Gerber and Scott Gerber welcome
for the first time to the Bill Cunningham Show. And first of all,
can you relate to the American people what happened to you about one o'clock on
Friday, April the fourteenth at Ohio Northern University. What happened? I was
teaching my constitutional law class, and just as we were wrapping up the campus
here, multiple campus security come down to the front of the room where I
was and whisper into my ear something to the effect of your respected member of
the community, please follow us quietly to the Dean's office. And so I
had to walk through my students who were in the aisle and essentially do a
perp walk and out in the hallway at the you know, right at the
door, and then that escorted me to the Dean's office were armed town police.
And so then when I got in to the Dean's office, you know,
a multiple campus security and armtown police were guarding the doors in the dean's
suite. And I was presented with a piece of paper that said that I
had seven days to decide whether to resign and release any legal claims I might
have against the university, or the dean would commence the dismissal proceedings against me.
And of course, since I'm over forty, by law, I'm required
to have twenty one days, not seven, and so, but what their
objective was, in my opinion, was just to humiliate me and frighten me
into signing a document that was illegal for them to ask me to sign.
So I would just go away quietly and wouldn't be able to push back against
any of these programs that I thought had drifted into illegality. Professor Gerber,
I've sat in many law classes for many years. It took me four years
to get out of the University of Toledo because I was a bailiff at during
the day eight to four, went to law school at night six to ten.
Took me four years inside the classrooms at Toledo, and I'm sure the
case is Ohio Northern. The college, the law school professor is respected.
You've been there more than twenty years, you have tenure, and I think
you sound to me like you maybe in your six fifties or sixties. You've
been around a little bit. And so have you ever heard of armed police
officers in the middle of a class walk in and perp walk the law professor
through his class into the dean's office. How unusual is that? I've never
heard of it in my law fact, the reason I think, or one
of the reasons that my story is getting so much attention, is because of
how outrageously extreme it was to have the police involved in this is just way
way over the line to interrupt my students like this. There were still three
weeks of classes left in final exams, and I was banished. I couldn't
even finish the semester, you know, I couldn't go to commencement, none
of that stuff. And to this day I don't have any specifics about what
they say I've done wrong, because I haven't done anything wrong. Well,
I only objected to things that I I thought were illegal, which I'm allowed
by law to do. As you know, since you're a lawyer, d
EI efforts you believe in viewpoint diversity. Colleges and law schools today do not
generally believe in viewpoint diversity. What they call it as hate speech. Had
you done what activities had you committed previous to that April fourteenth day that showed
your support for viewpoint diversity that may have angered the administration Ohio Northern. What
did you written about Clarence Thomas? What are you written about d EI?
What are you'd written in the past that caused this to happen? Okay,
Well, the same week that I was escorted out, I was escorted out
on a Friday, April fourteenth. That Monday, I wrote an op ed
in The Hill defending Clarence Thomas's right to have friends, including rich Ones.
The week four before that, I did my monthly TV segment on the local
NBC News and we talked about Senate Bill eighty three on Ohio, which is
the anti woke bill, and I pointed out that there were some good things
in the bill, including the fact that they were just reminding colleges and universities
that they couldn't violate the law at institutions of higher education in hiring and student
admissions. The week before that, I published an op ed in the National
newspaper and then also an Ohio newspaper. In fact, the Ohio paper was
your own Cincinnati Enquirer making the same point. And then earlier in the semester,
as vice chair of the council, I politely raised my hand after our
chief diversity officer had made her report to council and asked her to please remember
to also address viewpoint diversity, and that didn't go over well. And then
in the past, you know, I had objected to actually hiring processes in
the law school that we're excluding qualified white men as finalists. We had one
where we had six finalists and not one of them was a white male,
and that's not a coincidence. And I later learned that they were emphasizing race,
gender, and ethnicity in the hiring process, which is illegal. You're
a lawyer, you know that you cannot take race, gender, and ethnicity
into account at all in hiring. You can take it into account a little
bit, and admissions, but even that's going to go out the window at
the end of this month when the Supreme Court forbids it. I think so,
But you know, as a I did a lot of labor law work
for High Civil Service Employee Association. Sometimes there's a pretext firing, which is,
well, this is a bad apple. This guy doesn't work well,
he doesn't show up for his classes to teach. He's got a few arrest
in his background. He's charged with domestic violence. This guy's passing bad chat,
that kind of stuff. Is there anything in Professor Scott Gerber's background that
would indicate that you engage in some behavior other than believing in diversity of thought
that would have caused this pretext firing? There is not. I'm ali.
I worked very hard. I wake up early to prepare my classes, I
go to bed early, and in between I'm working on my writing. I
stay away from people that have made it clear to me that they don't like
me because they don't share my commitment to viewpoint diversity, and that also it
seems like a little bit jealous of my writing because I publish a lot,
and you know, I'm so, I go out of my way to stay
away from them. So I have done nothing, nothing, and in fact,
you know, the basis for this dismissal is collegially that's not even listed
in the faculty handbook as it rounds. Were dismissing someone, especially someone who
has won the Best Teacher of the award recently, who has published more than
anyone in the history of the university, and who does it good and important
service, including fifteen years in counting as a member of the Ohio Advisory Committee
to the US Commission on Civil Rights, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. So
I haven't done anything. I'm a very boring person, except when I have
to defend myself against things like this. You know, my hobbies are I
go out and have a pizza occasionally or maybe some wings, and I like,
um, you know, sports, and so I'll watch sports and stuff
like that. But I keep to myself. Well as far as that,
well, what impact did this have on your students? As their professor was
let out by armed guards and police. What impact did it have on them?
Did it it has the I think the viewpoint of maybe stilling those who
may have similar you points from expressing them. It's rather frosty. What impact
did it have? On your students as their beloved professors led out by armed
guards. Well when when the campus security officer was whispering into my ear,
I lifted my eyes to the to the class, and the students looked confused
and scared, and so of course I was confused and scared. But then
I was banished from the campus that you know, that day, right after
I met with the dean, so I wasn't allowed to communicate with the students.
You know, I happened to run into a couple of them on the
you know, in town while I was taking a walk or going to the
bank or something like that, and they were upset by it. And I've
been defamed, you know. That's the other part of this, and that's
one reason that they did it. They wanted to poison the campus against me
by making people think there was like an active shooter on the campus, or
you know, making it seem like I was a monster. And there was
even an article in the student newspaper that painted it that way that students had
no idea what was going on, and the administration was, you know,
locking down the law school and treating it like an active shooter. Grill Professor,
I would think I would. I would think you're like a non person.
I can recall what happened in the old Soviet Union or communist right China
that if someone doesn't think correctly, you become a non person, you don't
exist. Yeah. No, it's I'm naive, or I was naive enough
to think that, given the fact that I had tenure in my record is
just so strong. And I don't want to sound like I'm ragging, but
it's it's really strong. In fact, this summer, I'm finishing reviewing the
page proofs for my tenth book that one of the great university presses in the
world is publishing. I could actually exercise my free speech rights and the best
interest of the universting and just point out that you cannot push these programs to
the point of illegality, and you cannot forget that the most important thing about
higher education is that you expose students to computing viewpoints about certain thing. I
was naive to think I could do that. But I'm not allowed to do
that, and they're trying to ruin my life because of it. That's it.
I kind of think I can see how this is playing out. From
Ohio Northern university. They're thinking, Okay, this guy's going to sign off
will put them under a lot of pressure. Here's the separation agreement, in
which you give up all your rights to sue whatever under various illegalities committed by
a higher northern And here's some money. Here's a check, and Scott Gerber,
here's the payoff. Here's the forty shekels that we're going to push your
way and we're going to pay you one or two years of salary. Know
your role, shut your mouth and go away. Have you considered signing the
separation agreement and getting paid to get rid of your to get rid of your
rights and the ability to sue, because that money is going to be pushed
your side of the table and you got to sign them all away. Will
you do that? Oh no, I already decline to sign it. I
mean this is I'm not in it for money. If my life was about
making money, I would have stayed a lawyer and I could have made a
lot of money. We don't get paid very well. And my father was
a college professor. And I always loved ideas. I love what I do.
I love working with the students, I love writing about ideas. I
love going to other universities and you know, sharing my research and things like
that. I love talking to community groups about my ideas, and so I'm
actually an ideal person to be a faculty member. And they're trying to literally
end my career period. And if they if they get away with this,
there's no other college that's going to hire me. No, so my career
is over. And you're right, I'm I'm not a spring chicken anymore,
and so this is it. So Luckily for me, I have lawyers that
are helping me, and you know, a friend of mine started to go
fund me page for me to kind of help me raise money for that,
because the university has a lot deeper pockets than me. And you can rest
assured that the dean's legal fees are going to be paid by the university,
not out of his own pocket. And they just hope that people that they
mistreat like me will go bankrupt fighting him and then give up. Well,
I've contacted Bill Sites, he's the House Majority leader. He's aware. There's
a story on Fox News also Wall Street Journal about this and about a few
point discrimination. And you're rather naive to think that a person should be judged
by the quality of their academic credentials and their pursuits and their thinking as opposed
to skin color. But when you say white men should be treated equally to
other individuals, that it's wrong racially to exclude someone based upon skin color,
that to me is basic American principles of fairness. But many, I think
most colleges, universities, especially law schools, that doesn't apply anymore. And
it's sad. But once again the go fund me page you can google Scott
Gerber Legal Fund Scott Gerber Legal Fund to assist and professor. I'd love I'd
love to have been back in time. I had a great professor named ron
rate our Ai t t. He was eclectic and he was strong. He
was great. When I think of people like you, I think of all
the law school professors that are teaching the lawyers in the future. Do not
bend over and take one for the team. Do not sell your rights for
money, and that in your fight today will be our fight tomorrow. And
I wish you nothing but the best, Scott Gerber. And what final comment
would you like to make to the American people, Well, I just want
to thank you for that. I want people judged on the merits. That's
what I want. I want people to, you know, work hard and
if someone has more talent than me or works harder than me, they should
prevail. But if I work harder and I have more talent, I shouldn't
have my career ruin just because I think for myself and don't go along with
what I consider to be illegal hiring and admissions practices. Scott, Professor,
if you lose this case, and if you sign away your rights, which
appear to be unlikely, and if you if you don't pursue this case,
there'll be other Scott Gerber's all around the Midwest in the world that's gonna be
subjected to the same things that you've gone through. Your fight today will be
our fight tomorrow. And I wish you and yours nothing but the best.
Thank you, professor, Well, thank you very much, and enjoy the
rest of the day. God bless America. Thank you. Let's continue with
more. There it is go fund me page Scott Gerber Legal Fund. And
this is happening constantly in colleges and universities, even high schools. It's happening
as we speak, and it must be stopped. Bill Cunningham News Radio seven
hundred WLW. I'm Scott's flown here and you don't need me to tell you
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