# Should universities hire terrorists? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 15, 2013, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-universities-hire-terrorists/655785 "2013-04-15T20:27:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Kearsen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/82dd89/32.png) [@Kearsen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kearsen)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-universities-hire-terrorists/655785/41 "2013-04-16T18:05:48Z")
Fact. > **[Recidivism and Reentry](https://bjs.ojp.gov/topics/recidivism-and-reentry?tid=17&ty=tp)** > > Statistical information and publications about recidivism and reentry in the United States from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. It is absolutely hilarious that when it’s a pet progressive project the steps you guys will take to turn the course of conversation from facts to ‘prejudice and superstition’ ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-universities-hire-terrorists/655785/42 "2013-04-16T18:07:26Z")
> [@Kearsen](#): > > Fact. > > [Home | Bureau of Justice Statistics](http://bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=tp&tid=17) So, you really Dr. Boudin is currently a threat to society? I suppose it’s possible, but no more likely than any of the rest of us. ---
**Author:** ![Kearsen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/82dd89/32.png) [@Kearsen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kearsen)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-universities-hire-terrorists/655785/43 "2013-04-16T18:10:28Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > So, you really Dr. Boudin is currently a threat to society? I suppose it’s possible, but no more likely than any of the rest of us. If you change the way you frame the question, you get a different answer. My personal views on the issue are she was hired by a private university and it is on them to justify to their students why. I don’t attend their University nor do I have kids attending. End. The question originally posed wasn’t that cut and dried though. It was a question of whether there was _any_ reason to doubt her rehabilitation. Of course there was and is. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-universities-hire-terrorists/655785/44 "2013-04-16T18:11:04Z")
> [@Kearsen](#): > > Fact. [Logic.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy_of_composition) ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-universities-hire-terrorists/655785/45 "2013-04-16T18:14:40Z")
> [@Kearsen](#): > > The same thing that has me doubting it now. > > Honestly, is my position so very hard for you to grasp? **Ravenman** put forth a question of “Do you have reason to doubt her rehabilitation?”. I answered with yes due to the rehabilitation rate failures we have in the US. Why is this not a good enough answer for you? > > My answer would be the same if I had answered in 2008, 2013 or 2304 Because you refuse to take in and evaluate any information about her personally, you can just treat her as a stereotype? Do you do this with any other large groups of people? ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-universities-hire-terrorists/655785/46 "2013-04-16T18:27:37Z")
I don’t want to treat her as a stereotype. I don’t see what good it does to say, blithely, “All cons are terrible.” If that’s the case, why do we even let them out of prison? Let’s just execute them post-haste. Obviously we can’t let them back into our world and god forbid we allow them near our children. Never mind the fact that maybe they might have something to teach our children. When you listen to someone teaching you, do you listen to the person who’s been there done that, or do you listen to the sanctimonious twat who’s never done anything in their lives and feels they can tell you not to do anything, too? I don’t think they should put her entire resume on the website, but it’s out there in cyberspace for anyone to find out. And who knows? Maybe she’s teaching her kids, “I did a horrible thing. I went to prison for it. In prison I learned how much I can give back to the world.” Or maybe she’s teaching them how to commit terrorist acts. We’ll hear about that soon enough, I’m sure. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-universities-hire-terrorists/655785/47 "2013-04-16T18:36:37Z")
No University that allows an ROTC on campus should be looking for specks in other hires’ eyes, as it were. ---
**Author:** ![Kearsen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/82dd89/32.png) [@Kearsen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kearsen)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-universities-hire-terrorists/655785/48 "2013-04-16T18:54:34Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Because you refuse to take in and evaluate any information about her personally, you can just treat her as a stereotype? Do you do this with any other large groups of people? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-universities-hire-terrorists/655785/49 "2013-04-16T18:56:59Z")
> [@Kearsen](#): > > :rolleyes: I expected no less…and no more. ---
**Author:** ![Kearsen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/82dd89/32.png) [@Kearsen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kearsen)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-universities-hire-terrorists/655785/50 "2013-04-16T18:57:14Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Because you refuse to take in and evaluate any information about her personally, you can just treat her as a stereotype? Do you do this with any other large groups of people? What you have both failed, spectacularly, in realizing is that I am casting no judgement on her other than having reason to doubt her rehabilitation. Not whether or not she was a good hire, not whether or not it was a bad decision. And definitely not whether she herself has been effectively rehabilitated, only time will tell that. I said I had reason to **doubt** that rehabilitation worked for her. ---
**Author:** ![storyteller0910](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecae2f/32.png) [@storyteller0910](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/storyteller0910)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-universities-hire-terrorists/655785/51 "2013-04-16T19:02:50Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Should universities hire _terrorists_? > > I can’t even think why a university would need to have a terrorist on staff. And what department would a terrorist be placed in? Maintenance? Physical Plant? Groundskeeping? Obviously the English Department. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-universities-hire-terrorists/655785/52 "2013-04-16T19:07:08Z")
> [@Kearsen](#): > > What you have both failed, spectacularly, in realizing is that I am casting no judgement on her other than having reason to doubt her rehabilitation. > Not whether or not she was a good hire, not whether or not it was a bad decision. And definitely not whether she herself has been effectively rehabilitated, only time will tell that. > > I said I had reason to **doubt** that rehabilitation worked for her. The implication is that the University should be subject to criticism for hiring someone when there is doubt about whether she has been rehabilitated. Otherwise, why chime in at all? ---
**Author:** ![Kearsen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/82dd89/32.png) [@Kearsen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kearsen)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-universities-hire-terrorists/655785/53 "2013-04-16T19:09:04Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > The implication is that the University should be subject to criticism for hiring someone when there is doubt about whether she has been rehabilitated. Otherwise, why chime in at all? Uh, they are subject to criticism but like I said earlier they are responsible for their own actions. See: This thread ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-universities-hire-terrorists/655785/54 "2013-04-16T19:23:22Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Because you refuse to take in and evaluate any information about her personally, you can just treat her as a stereotype? Personally I don’t have a lot of information about her personally. Has Boudin ever said something like, “I deeply regret my role in all the violent crimes that I committed. I feel horribly guilty about the fact that my actions inflicted so much pain on the victims and their family and friends”? I’m asking honestly, since I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![Airbeck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/airbeck/32/6574_2.png) [@Airbeck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airbeck)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-universities-hire-terrorists/655785/55 "2013-04-16T19:24:17Z")
> [@Kearsen](#): > > See: This thread Is this the same thing as ‘my post is my cite’? In any event, the way I see this disagreement is that you are saying that you have a reason to doubt her rehabilitation, whereas everyone else seems to be saying that you have no _good_ reason to doubt her rehabilitation. If you reason to doubt her essentially boils down to a comment on everyone that has ever been convicted of a crime ever, then it really says nothing about her, or this particular case, does it? If you disagree, then what does your comment say about her specifically, and this story in particular? If it says nothing about this particular case, then I would echo another poster’s question to you: why chime in at all? ---
**Author:** ![Kearsen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/82dd89/32.png) [@Kearsen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kearsen)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-universities-hire-terrorists/655785/56 "2013-04-16T20:40:03Z")
> [@Airbeck](#): > > Is this the same thing as ‘my post is my cite’? > > In any event, the way I see this disagreement is that you are saying that you have a reason to doubt her rehabilitation, whereas everyone else seems to be saying that you have no _good_ reason to doubt her rehabilitation. > > If you reason to doubt her essentially boils down to a comment on everyone that has ever been convicted of a crime ever, then it really says nothing about her, or this particular case, does it? If you disagree, then what does your comment say about her specifically, and this story in particular? If it says nothing about this particular case, then I would echo another poster’s question to you: why chime in at all? Probably to answer **Ravenman’s** assertion > [@Ravenman](#): > > Do you have reason to doubt her rehabilitation? The answer to that was to cite the horrific rehabilitation rate in the US. Is that enough for doubt? Most assuredly. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-universities-hire-terrorists/655785.md?page=2)