Savage had agreed in February to serve on the campus First Year Reading Experience Committee, which selects books for incoming freshmen to read as part of their immersion into campus life. In response to the suggestions of others on the committee that the list include liberal titles by such authors as Richard Dawkins and Jared Diamond, Savage responded by recommending—tongue-in-cheek, he later claimed—books by conservative authors David Kupelian, David Horowitz, Bat Ye’or, and Sen. Rick Santorum.
“I was making a point,” Savage said in the April 21 Columbus Dispatch. “I want us to be aware of our biases.”
Two English professors on the committee, J. F. Buckley and Norman Jones, filed a harassment complaint against Savage March 16, saying that the book he had recommended by Kupelian, The Marketing of Evil, was homophobic and that his actions created a “hostile work environment” and made them feel “fearful and uneasy” about being gay men.
Although Savage was exonerated, he has filed a complaint with the university against Buckley and Jones, saying that they falsely accused him of harassment. “I was smeared,” he told the Dispatch. “It was a nightmare. Sexual harassment is the most toxic thing you can accuse someone of.”
Freeman said the entire situation is unfortunate, and in an e-mail she asked faculty and staff to foster an “atmosphere where students, staff, and faculty are free to express opinions and where different points of view are not only tolerated, but welcomed.”
Posted April 21, 2006.