Ohio State University is out of patience with a retired math professor who university officials say abused his email privileges with mass emailings on contentious issues.

Ohio State University is out of patience with a retired math professor who university officials say abused his email privileges with mass emailings on contentious issues.

Boris Mityagin, who was named an emeritus professor last year, was told on March 28 that he�s been taken off of several email lists kept by the math department. He can still receive mail directly to his old account, but he no longer can use the lists to send his thoughts to whole departments at a time.

Mityagin long has been a critic of the university, writing letters to The Dispatch and sending reporters observations on what he has described as the futility of remedial education, poor passing rates among OSU students in low-level math courses and excessive deference to feminism on campus, among other topics.

A recent robust exchange on the math department�s list, with Mityagin and others mocking a visiting lecturer�s paper titled �Glaciers, gender and science: A feminist glaciology framework for global environmental change research,� apparently went too far. Other faculty members joined in with responses ranging from quick quips to lengthy, withering criticism; some lamented the contempt for others� scholarship and called for greater respect and civility. Eventually the discussion veered into arguments about OSU�s department of Women�s, Gender and Sexuality Studies.

On March 25, Kay N. Wolf, vice provost for academic policy and faculty resources, warned Mityagin: �Put simply, I find your correspondence to be unprofessional and unacceptable. Specifically, in December, you forwarded an email regarding Title IX training as �consensual sexual penetration training.� And ... on March 18, you referred to the Department of Women�s, Gender and Sexuality Studies as the Department of �Women, Gender and Rape Culture Studies.� Such belittlement ... does little to advance knowledge ...�

On March 28, Luis Casian, chairman of the math department, lowered the boom with an email that began, �Dear Boris, You have been asked many, many times by me� to stop with the mass emails. Mityagin�s access to the lists was canceled. He could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

New Hilliard schools?

Hilliard schools officials are pondering whether to ask voters to pay for a new middle school or elementary school, as well as how to structure the request on the November ballot.

They want to know what voters think, so they�ve scheduled two community forums to discuss the findings and recommendations of a facilities task force: 7 p.m. April 18 in the cafeteria of Weaver Middle School, 4600 Avery Road, and 7 p.m. April 21 in the cafeteria of Heritage Middle School, 5670 Scioto-Darby Road, according to district spokeswoman Stacie Raterman.

Superintendent John Marschhausen hopes the board will decide the matter soon, with a ballot resolution to be introduced May 23 and voted on June 13.

To accommodate expected enrollment growth, options include building a fourth building for grades seven and eight, a new one for grades six through eight or a new elementary and additions onto other buildings. The new building likely would be on land the district owns next to Bradley High School at 2800 Walker Rd.

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