MOVING TO FRONT FROM YESTERDAY

The petition is here.  (Thanks to philosopher Joel Pust [Delaware] for organizing this.)  The background statement hedges a bit more than is really necessary in my view, crediting claims by the college that are nonsensical and won't stand up in court.  But the basic text of the statement is good and I urge all members of the academic community to sign the petition.  Here's the key text:

We the undersigned, as members of the community of scholars, protest the apparent termination without due process by Dickinson College of Professor Crispin Sartwell, a TENURED associate professor of philosophy, contrary to Dickinson's own Academic Handbook, AAUP guidelines, and the customary standards of tenure.

Unless the College can produce a formal letter of resignation by Professor Sartwell or evidence that he accepted a separation agreement, we call for Professor Sartwell to be reinstated immediately and for the administration of Dickinson College to act in accordance with Dickinson's Academic Handbook and accepted AAUP standards in all subsequent dealings with Professor Sartwell.

Thanks also to the many readers who helped Prof. Sartwell meet the fundraising goal to help with his legal expenses.

UPDATE:  The petition was released April 21, and garnered about 100 signatures in its first five days.  In the last 24 hours, since this post went up, more than 80 additional philosophers and academics in other fields have signed–thank you!  But I hope even more readers will join them as signatories.  Ned Block, Jeff McMahan, John Gardner, Neil Tennant, Keith Whittington, Alex Byrne, Peter Vallentyne, Richard Moran, and C.D.C. Reeve are among the distinguished senior scholars who have signed in the last day:  please join them!  Colleges hate unfavorable attention to their bad behavior.   Legal remedies are being sought, but the academic community can make known its concern with what has transpired.