At first glance, the recent banning of political science professor Jacqueline Stevens from the Northwestern University campus looks like a case in point for this dismissive old quip about university faculty squabbles: “The politics are so vicious because the stakes are so small.”
On July 28, College of Arts and Sciences dean Adrian Randolph sent Stevens a letter banning her from campus and from any contact with students, and ordering her to undergo a “fitness for duty” evaluation with a doctor of their choosing. The psychiatric interview was scheduled for this week.
At the time, Stevens was also spearheading an ultimately successful campaign to stymie the appointment of retired lieutenant general Karl Eikenberry as head of Northwestern’s Buffett Institute for Global Studies, where Stevens heads the Deportation Research Clinic.
In a phone interview last week, Stevens said: “In all this, there’s no specific threat, and no specific allegation of violence. Tillery’s only evidence for his fear that I might shoot him is that it happens all the time. The worst he’s accusing me of is that I misrepresented what he said in a conversation. I dispute that, but [even if it were true] it’s not a basis for banning me. If he really felt I was an imminent threat, he should have called police, filed for a restraining order.” She has posted her own account of the saga online at brandNU.world.
