Nona Gerard is not the only tenured professor to be terminated lately for criticizing colleagues. On Friday, the University of Southern Mississippi began termination proceedings againt two tenured professors for criticizing the school administration and for investigating whether a university vice president had falsified her academic credentials. On Friday, Frank Glamser (who happens to be president of the university's AAUP chapter) and Gary Stringer were suspended with pay and locked out of their offices. Their computers were seized and police escorted them from the campus. The official charge is that they misused university equipment by using it to research the aforementioned administrator's credentials. The school has issued a press release denying that the move to terminate is "the result of either of these two faculty members exercising any form of constitutionally protected speech."

Details are available at Scott Rogers' site, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and all over the local media.

Thanks to both Scott Rogers and John Wilson for the heads up.

UPDATE: Phluaria has more. So does KC Johnson--don't miss the comments.

AND ANOTHER: This one is growing legs. Ralph Luker has an excellent round-up. Ralph calls on FIRE, the AAUP, and the NAS to stand up on this one. I second that. Worth noting: the AAUP has become involved in Nona Gerard's case, which has otherwise inexplicably been left to languish by other watchdog organizations.

AND ANOTHER, ON 3/11: Ralph Luker reports that the USM faculty has passed a vote of no confidence in USM president Shelby Thames. He also points to this "Fire Shelby" site.