Lately, people have been throwing the word �laughingstock� around rather loosely when it comes to the University of Missouri�s campus in Columbia. To be more precise, it has become fashionable for people in Missouri who disapprove of university students and employees protesting racial discrimination to claim recent campus unrest has resulted in the school becoming a national �laughingstock.�

State Rep. Donna Lichtenegger explained her support for a budget amendment designed to punish the school for its students exercising their First Amendment rights as an attempt �to make people understand that we are not going to be a laughingstock.�

In a recent letter to The Columbia Missourian, Professor Emeritus Brian Brooks claimed Melissa Click �has made the University of Missouri the laughingstock of the entire country.� Two commenters on the letter used the word �laughingstock� to describe the university as well. A Google search reveals that many bloggers who write about the university also favor this phrasing.

I don�t know who wrote the script these people are borrowing from, but I do know that an appeal to ridicule is an informal logical fallacy and that simply saying the campus has become a laughingstock doesn�t make it so. I also wonder if, perhaps, those making these claims are too close to Columbia to really gauge what the rest of the country is or is not laughing at. While I have no doubt certain people find activism in the face of entrenched power and institutionalized racism �funny,� I don�t think they really reflect the majority of the country.

Speaking as someone who has lived all over the country � including Columbia � and who currently resides in Ohio, I think I can safely say that, in fact, most of us outside of Columbia are not laughing about what is going on at MU. Quite the contrary � we are concerned about the safety and well-being of students. We debate seriously a professor�s due process rights and student journalists� rights to take photographs on public property. We discuss Concerned Student 1950 and the role nonviolent direct action can play in effecting serious change. At a Christmas party toward the end of last year, an attorney friend and I discussed how impressed we both were with the courage of Missouri�s football team and its coach, Gary Pinkel.

These are not matters to laugh at, despite what some people like to tell the media.

I understand people are angry � particularly with Click, who by her own admission made a serious mistake. It seems to me, though, that she admitted her wrongdoing and expressed genuine remorse. I�m inclined to say that � combined with the facts that no one was hurt by her words or actions and that she was acting with the best interest of students in mind � probably qualifies her for forgiveness.

At the very least, it should have qualified her for a fair hearing with her promotion and tenure committee before the Board of Curators decided, in a session closed to the public, to curtail her due process rights and end her career.

I�m biased, of course. I really, really love MU. I spent four of the best years of my life in Columbia, studying literature and creative writing. I met the woman I would later marry in Tate Hall. Several members of the faculty are among my smartest and most trusted friends � friends who now have to fear for their jobs, should they say something to make themselves politically inconvenient. I learned a lot on that campus, both about the world and about myself. Put simply, my years at MU were powerfully transformative.

And it bothers me that some people would like to deny other students that type of transformative experience. And, make no mistake, that is one of the consequences of withholding funds, stripping the faculty of their due process rights and removing academic freedom protections for those who voice dissent. When you �punish� members of the university community for saying things that aren�t popular, or articulating anger at injustice, or simply not expressing themselves in a manner that all find agreeable, you cripple the university and its crucial mission for the people of Missouri.

And it�s not a laughing matter.