A New Hire, a Koch Grant, and a Department in Crisis
The money was supposed to be a lifeline. Instead it added fuel to a fire.
Andrea Levy for The Chronicle Politics and the Academy May 25, 2021
The search for a new philosophy professor at Bowling Green State University was relatively uneventful at first. A committee was formed, applications came in. Committee members culled the pool and, as 2015 came to a close, narrowed it down to a handful of people to interview.
But Christian Coons, an associate professor, felt that there was at least one person in the pool who didn’t belong. Brandon Warmke was not as well-versed as some of the other candidates in the history of philosophy, the topic the new hire would teach, Coons said. In an email, he told a colleague that he thought another applicant was better. (