News : Missouri News
UMSL instructor cleared in labor video controversy
May 12, 2011, 10:32 AM
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A University of Missouri-St. Louis labor studies instructor whose videotaped lecture comments were initially interpreted as an endorsement of violence as a union tactic will be able to return to the classroom after school officials determined the remarks were edited and taken out of context.
School officials sent a letter to faculty and staff saying an investigation cleared instructor Don Giljum of any wrongdoing, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Wednesday. Giljum said he had been forced to resign.
Video clips on conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart's Web site purported to show Giljum and Missouri-Kansas City professor Judy Ancel making the controversial comments.
Missouri-St. Louis officials said the video took comments made by both instructors out of context and distorted their meaning through editing from different times and classes. The videos used footage from roughly 30 hours of class discussions.
In their letter sent campus-wide on Monday, Chancellor Tom George and Provost Glen Cope said they reached the same conclusion as their counterparts on the Kansas City campus who quickly issued a statement supporting Ancel's academic freedom while criticizing Breitbart's "selective editing." St. Louis campus leaders didn't obtain the complete video until last week.
The letter said comments by the instructors "were definitely taken out of context, with their meaning highly distorted through splicing and editing from different times within a class period and across multiple class periods."
Giljum an adjunct professor and former union business manager who represented workers at utility Ameren Corp., could not be reached for comment. But Ancel said that she felt vindicated by her school's support, which helped her endure heavy criticism once the videos went viral.
"It was an enormous relief," she said. "I imagine that Don Giljum feels the same."
Breitbart was at the center of two video controversies in recent years — one that led to the firing of a U.S. Agriculture Department employee over an edited video of what appeared to be a racist remark, and another that embarrassed the community group ACORN when workers were shown counseling actors posing as a prostitute and pimp.
The Labor, Politics, and Society class is taught on both campuses using video links. Ancel, director of the Institute for Labor Studies at Missouri-Kansas City, said she expects the class to again be taught next year.
School officials sent a letter to faculty and staff saying an investigation cleared instructor Don Giljum of any wrongdoing, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Wednesday. Giljum said he had been forced to resign.
Video clips on conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart's Web site purported to show Giljum and Missouri-Kansas City professor Judy Ancel making the controversial comments.
Missouri-St. Louis officials said the video took comments made by both instructors out of context and distorted their meaning through editing from different times and classes. The videos used footage from roughly 30 hours of class discussions.
In their letter sent campus-wide on Monday, Chancellor Tom George and Provost Glen Cope said they reached the same conclusion as their counterparts on the Kansas City campus who quickly issued a statement supporting Ancel's academic freedom while criticizing Breitbart's "selective editing." St. Louis campus leaders didn't obtain the complete video until last week.
The letter said comments by the instructors "were definitely taken out of context, with their meaning highly distorted through splicing and editing from different times within a class period and across multiple class periods."
Giljum an adjunct professor and former union business manager who represented workers at utility Ameren Corp., could not be reached for comment. But Ancel said that she felt vindicated by her school's support, which helped her endure heavy criticism once the videos went viral.
"It was an enormous relief," she said. "I imagine that Don Giljum feels the same."
Breitbart was at the center of two video controversies in recent years — one that led to the firing of a U.S. Agriculture Department employee over an edited video of what appeared to be a racist remark, and another that embarrassed the community group ACORN when workers were shown counseling actors posing as a prostitute and pimp.
The Labor, Politics, and Society class is taught on both campuses using video links. Ancel, director of the Institute for Labor Studies at Missouri-Kansas City, said she expects the class to again be taught next year.
