Des Moines Register
05-15-07
ISU prof appeals denial of tenure
Supporters say it was because of 'intelligent design' ideas
By LISA ROSSI
REGISTER AMES BUREAU
Ames, Ia. - An Iowa State University assistant professor who has triggered
controversy for his promotion of intelligent design, a theory that disputes parts of
evolution, is challenging a university decision to deny him tenure.
Guillermo Gonzalez, an ISU assistant physics and astronomy professor,
has appealed the denial of tenure to Iowa State University President Gregory
Geoffroy.
University officials said the May 8 decision to deny Gonzalez tenure was not
political. Supporters of Gonzalez said they think the university denied him tenure
because he promoted an unpopular idea on college campuses, the theory that
some features of life are best explained as products of an intelligent cause,
rather than natural selection or random mutation.
"I think if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it likely is a duck," said John
West, a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, a Seattle-based organization that
supports discussing intelligent design in science classes. "There are two issues
here: academic freedom and the First Amendment.
Gonzalez has gained national attention for his advocacy of intelligent design as a
legitimate science in his book "The Privileged Planet."
Advocates of intelligent design said they distinguish themselves from those who
believe in creationism, which they say starts with a religious text and tries to see
how the findings of science can be reconciled to it. West said intelligent design
scientists start with the empirical data of science and try to see what can be
logically inferred from that evidence.
More than 400 faculty members at the University of Iowa, Iowa State and the
University of Northern Iowa have signed petitions that reject attempts to
represent intelligent design as science. None of the statements mentions
Gonzalez by name.
Gonzalez is not the first ISU professor to be turned down for tenure, which
essentially gives a faculty member a lifetime job at the university.
About 12 people have applied for tenure in the past 10 years in the physics and
astronomy department, and four of those were denied, said Eli Rosenberg, the
chairman of the ISU department of physics and astronomy.
John McCarroll, ISU executive director of university relations, said tenure is
achieved through approval from the candidate's department, the department
chairman, a committee within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the dean
of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the executive vice president and
provost, and the university president.
Gonzalez was denied a favorable vote on each of those levels, McCarroll said.
The decision on whether to award tenure is also based on the quality of the
faculty member's work, the "impact in the community, how you are being
received in the community," he said.
Gonzalez has said he does not teach intelligent design at ISU, nor is he an
advocate of including intelligent design in public schools.
Gonzalez said in an interview Monday that he has worried since August 2005
about his chances for promotion.
At that time, ISU faculty members circulated a petition that rejected attempts to
characterize intelligent design as science.