While reading the August 31 edition of the paper, I came across an article entitled “Biased professors pose problems,” by Emily Kelly.  Reading this, I realized that I had shared the class Ms. Kelly referenced, and was extremely offended by this one-sided, false narrative, particularly considering that this is what the article charged another with.  

To begin, she makes her first point a supposed guess at an entire department staff’s Presidential election votes.  To my knowledge, voting is done in private, and there is no data correlating one’s teaching capacity to their voting record.  Furthermore, the following fiction she posed as a classroom experience had been heavily doctored, apparently to extract a sentiment of displeasure from readers, such as her fellow students.  As for the “quote” in paragraph 3, the professor had in fact been comparing murder rates, not crime rates, between states employing capital punishment with states that do not.  Texas was the example, because the state does hand out far more death sentences than any other state in the country.  Texas has a murder rate of about 5.6 per 100,000 people, about 23% higher than the national average among states not using capital punishment, supporting the professor’s point that the use of capital punishment as a deterrent is ineffective.  Ms. Kelly rushed online and pulled not murder rates, but overall crime rates, which were completely irrelevant.  After trying unsuccessfully to explain to Ms. Kelly, the teacher’s efforts were completely ignored, and she continued to say he was wrong, to which he said, not yelled, “I don’t care.”

It was in fact Ms. Kelly’s behavior that was both “immature and unnecessary.”  Ms. Kelly had been the one “so wrapped up” in her side of the argument that she was unable to comprehend that the discussion was not about supporting a political platform, but rather the effectiveness of the death penalty as a deterrent.  Simply because Ms. Kelly’s starkly conservative nature prevents her from understanding anything other than Fox News or Sarah Palin does not mean all others have a liberal agenda.  Furthermore, the evidence-lacking wild accusations, bordering on propaganda, she is directing at our teaching staff are nothing but detrimental to the N.C. State community.  Embarrass yourself as you please, but don’t put such garbage in our student body newspaper.  

James Aughenbaugh

sophomore, social work