Gordon Gee, the president of Ohio State University, announced his retirement on Tuesday after over three decades as a university president.

While Gee told reporters that his decision was not the result of his misguided verbal gaffes being published by the Associated Press last week, those covering the announcement have been quick to emphasize that his December 5 remarks about “those damn Catholics” at Notre Dame and jabs at the academic integrity of the University of Louisville were actually Gee’s undoing.

The coverage of his retirement has offered a retrospective of the bow-tied president’s controversial comments over the years. The Columbus Dispatch reported that “Gee’s comments were only the most recent in a series for which he has apologized” before listing some of the statements for which he has had to ask forgiveness:

“In November 2010, he boasted that Ohio State’s football schedule didn’t include teams on par with the ‘Little Sisters of the Poor.’ He later sent a personal check to the real Little Sisters of the Poor in northwestern Ohio and followed up with a visit to the nuns months later.
Last year, Gee apologized for comparing the problem of coordinating the school’s many divisions to the Polish army, an off-the-cuff remark that a Polish-American group called a ‘slanderous’ display of bigotry and ignorance.”

While Gee’s irresponsible speech should not be celebrated, does it merit his resignation? (For what its worth, as a Michigan native of Polish heritage — and with a working knowledge of at least 18th-century Polish military history — I can say that I do not find the latter comment a “display of bigotry.”)

Other personal factors or professional concerns may be behind his stepping down, but it seems that, to some degree, concerns for political correctness have punished sincerity and humor in these proceedings. Of course public figures should be aware of what they say and sensitive to how their statements could hurt others or be misinterpreted, but shouldn’t their audience also be able to discern what is meant — lighthearted jest or serious commentary — by such remarks? Surely there is a difference between deliberately offensive speech and an eccentric, grandfatherly scholar taking some cheap shots or making off-hand, colorful expressions.

Ohio governor John Kasich spoke out in support of Gee after the AP made his December 5 comments public: “He is a spontaneous guy, and I don’t like to see people turned from spontaneity into a robot.” Gee had been placed on a “remediation plan” by OSU trustees in January who found his remarks “unacceptable,” but the announcement of his retirement yesterday may be his way of preserving that spontaneity as his words once again face scrutiny.

“I’m quirky as hell,” the soon-to-be former president told reporters Tuesday, and the “tumultuous times” spawned by his quirkiness will prevent him from being involved in the university’s impending “transition period.” His retirement will become effective July 1.