Wacky Woodward Speaks, And Listeners Respond

Looney-tunes UNH psych professor William Woodward's appearance on the show Thursday has generated quite a bit of reaction. Many of the emails are similar to this one from John in Pelham:

Michael,

I just wanted to tell you that I am a huge fan and a loyal listener. I unfortunately graduated from UNH both undergraduate in business administration and graduate school in accounting. I used to be extremely proud of the school, even with its liberal background, but recently with William Woodward, I have come to realize that I am embarrassed to admit that I am a Wildcat alumni. So much so that I called the Alumni Center and told them to take my name out of the alumni database and to stop sending me anything related to the University so long as Woodward is still employed at the University.

I just graduated in May and I want to know what steps of action if any that I can do to remove a tenured professor. I have been following this for quite a while and it appears as if there have been lobbying groups that have asked the provost to investigate the entire situation which unfortunately resulted in absolutely nothing.

Being a citizen in NH and an alumni of UNH, there has to be something I can do.

I have contacted local politicians but have achieved nothing. You are a very intelligent man and I was hoping you would be able to steer me in the right direction.

Anyway, any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Michael,

John

And then there's this email, from Caroline in Rutland, which I hope every member of the UNH board will read:

Dear Chancellor Reno,

I am sending you this e-mail to voice my complete disgust and disbelief that a school with the history and quality of UNH is allowing someone like Professor William Woodward to continue teaching young adults given his comments and so called "theories" regarding the tragedy that occurred on 9/11/06.

My older brother Timothy Stout was an alumni of your school. He was murdered on 9/11 that day in the 103rd floor of the North Tower leaving behind a young wife and 3 children who were 6, 5 and 4. He would be incredulous to hear this kind of filth and ridiculous conspiracy view being spouted by someone from UNH. You should be embarrassed.

While I understand the "freedom of speech" argument when it comes to speaking opinions and getting students to think, the views of this "professor" (and I use that term loosely) go way beyond what most normal people would consider sensible.

End the association of this man with your school. I can tell you that our family, including my sister-in-law and her 3 children will never give a dime to your school while he is employed there. We have many family members who live in New Hampshire including one who is a State Representative (I lived there for 13 years and my husband grew up there). I am going to advise them to spread the word to anyone
they know that your school should be off limits until you do the right thing.

I hope that UNH comes to its senses.

Sincerely, Caroline

Hear, hear. And let's hope the University of New Hampshire does hear...from people like us: stephen.reno@unh.edu