An Article in 'The Chronicle of Higher Learning' Yesterday

Dispute Arises at Virginia Tech Over a Professor's Comments on the Shootings and the Provost's Response

A business-school professor at Virginia Tech who used last spring's massacre as an example in a lecture on risk is at the center of a minor dustup at a university scarred by the tragedy. The professor says his academic freedom has been stifled. The university says it is being sensitive to the needs of a traumatized student body.

On August 20, Vittorio A. Bonomo, a tenured associate professor of finance at Virginia Tech's Pamplin College of Business, began his first class of the semester, "Survey of Investments," by asking the 40-odd students in the course if they would prefer that he lock the classroom door -- a new security feature put in place in response to the April tragedy.

From there, he said, the discussion led seamlessly to one of the fundamentals of the class: how to evaluate risk when making investments. "Risk arises from a lack of good information," he said he told his students. For example, he said, locking the doors only diminished the class's risk if a shooter was outside the classroom, rather than inside. Without knowledge of who or where the shooter was, he explained, the risk to students in a locked or unlocked classroom was the same.

Mr. Bonomo's example then took a more concrete turn, when he openly criticized the university's handling of the April 16 shootings, in which a gunman killed two students in a dormitory, then a few hours later killed 30 more students and faculty members in Norris Hall, a classroom building.

By waiting over two hours before notifying students of the initial shootings, the professor told his class, the university had increased the risk for students and others on the campus that morning. The same type of monitoring that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission conducts of companies' financial reporting should also apply to the university, he said. If his own grandson had been in Norris Hall because information about his risk had been withheld, he told his students, he would have sued the university.

The next day, Mr. Bonomo said, he received word through his department head that his lecture had prompted complaints from students, and he was told he should apologize for his statements.

At the next meeting of his class, last Wednesday, the provost, Mark G. McNamee, was there waiting for him, the professor said. Mr. Bonomo said he began the class session by saying he was sorry if his lecture had offended any students, but added that he stood by his example as an appropriate illustration of investment risk. "I don't admit I did anything wrong," he said.

According to Mr. Bonomo, the provost told the class that most members of the university community had been cooperative in helping Virginia Tech move on from last spring's tragedy, but that he was there to talk about an exception. Mr. Bonomo said the provost apologized to the class for the professor's remarks and assured them that such an incident would not happen again. Incensed at the perceived rebuke, Mr. Bonomo told his students soon afterward that he would no longer teach the class and left the classroom, he recalled.

The provost's account of what was said in that class session differed. Mr. McNamee described his visit to the classroom, and the comments that precipitated it, as a "minor situation" that resulted from one student complaint. He said he visited Mr. Bonomo's class to inform any students who might have been upset of the counseling and other resources available on campus, and did not in any way reprimand Mr. Bonomo.

Mr. McNamee said he interpreted Mr. Bonomo's preliminary comments to the class as a voluntary apology. "In my view, that was the end of it," he said, adding that he was surprised to hear later that Mr. Bonomo had decided not to return to class. "He's more distressed than I would have thought," he said.

"We have great respect for academic freedom," said Mr. McNamee. "He can talk about any topic he wants."

Mr. McNamee said that the university has held workshops for faculty and staff members and has offered suggestions to them for dealing with the aftermath of the massacre. But, he said, "we were very careful not to try to impose on the faculty members what they should or should not say." He said the university encouraged faculty members to discuss the shootings. "But we're asking people to be sensitive to how students might react."

At an institution with 1,400 faculty members and 26,000 students, said Mr. McNamee, the controversy over Mr. Bonomo's lecture was the only incident reported to him during the first two weeks of the new school year.

Mr. Bonomo, who has taught 39 years at Virginia Tech and earned a prestigious teaching award there, the Wine Award, said he is not sure whether or not he will return to the classroom.

"I cannot teach in an environment where a discussion of how what the government does -- and the university is a government entity -- affects risk or investment decisions is off-limits," he said. "If those things are off-limits to me, and I don't know what is off-limits, I'm not comfortable in front of a classroom."

In the meantime, his classes have been assigned to a substitute.

Like Mr. Bonomo, some students in the class interpreted the provost's comments as a rebuke.

"I don't think it was handled properly," said a graduate student in the course who asked not to be named and who called the provost's actions "harsh." He said Mr. Bonomo's example may not have been the best one but added, "Students and faculty have a right to voice their opinion. I don't think he should have been reprimanded."

"Part of the healing process is talking about it," said the student, who had helped students escape Norris Hall during the April 16 shootings. "It might be a little soon to talk about it, but it can't hurt to start."

While many on the campus were unaware of the incident, some faculty members have taken umbrage at the perceived threat to academic freedom. One associate professor in the School of Architecture and Design, David Dugas, wrote in an e-mail message to Virginia Tech's president, Charles W. Steger, that the incident had "profoundly shaken" his "faith in the position of the university regarding academic freedom."

"That the provost saw fit to enter a classroom and deliver a message that was ultimately humiliating to the faculty member," wrote Mr. Dugas, "is beyond my comprehension, as it was to many of the students who were present. To my mind, humiliating someone in public is a species of violence that we as a university community cannot tolerate under any circumstances."

So that's the article. Whew. Sorry no knitting content today.

CNN called and wants to interview my Dad on camera tomorrow.