Fort Hays State professor's rant a hit on YouTube
5:02 p.m. Tuesday, August 12, 2008
In this war of words, we can't air most of them.
But we can show it to you...
Fort Hays State Professor Bill Shanahan caught on tape screaming at a judge after a debate on race.
The exchange happened back in March at the national quarter finals of the Cross Examination Debate Association.
Last week, it was posted on the internet site YouTube.
So far it's had more than 5,000 views.
"Bill is a non-conformist, he's a maverick, he's a very provocative teacher," Fort Hays State Provost Larry Gould said.
Gould explains what he believes happened.
"What seems to be the provocateur for all of this is the idea that debaters are allowed to strike two judges, and in this case, there were five judges, and the Florida State University team struck two judges who had given them low scores in the past. One of them happened to be a black female, and that set the thing off," Gould said.
The nearly nine minute diatribe is prompting a campus investigation.
"And we're sure that there's probably some facts and information that's just not available," Gould said. "I mean, you see a lot on the video, but we need to make sure everything is revealed before we take any action."
At this point, there's no word on what kind of reprimand, if any, Shanahan faces.
But another professor caught on tape at the debate wanted to make sure that students who saw the exchange got a message.
Debates on touchy subjects like race can offend people.
"I wish everyone would recognize the importance of these issues and stop to think about the consequences they're having on real people."
Professor Bill Shanahan responded to the story by e-mail.
He says he is in Massachusetts after spending a month teaching in Dartmouth College and that he was not given a real opportunity to respond.
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