Speech Impediments

MICHAEL GREVE

J.DONALD SILVA is a Congregational pastor in New Castle, New Hampshire. He had also been a writing instructor at the University of New Hampshire for thirty years, until April 1993, when UNH suspended him, charging that he had created an “intimidating, hostile, and offensive academic environment.” The evidence consisted of two offbeat remarks Silva had made in class—one comparing “focus” in the writing process to sex, the other illustrating the meaning of “simile” with a famed belly dancer’s comparison of her profession to “Jell-o on a plate with a vibrator under the plate.” After seven female students complained, UNH administrators suspended Silva without pay and told him to undergo psychological counseling before petitioning for reinstatement.

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MICHAEL GREVE

J.DONALD SILVA is a Congregational pastor in New Castle, New Hampshire. He had also been a writing instructor at the University of New Hampshire for thirty years, until April 1993, when UNH suspended him, charging that he had created an “intimidating, hostile, and offensive academic environment.” The evidence consisted of two offbeat remarks Silva had made in class—one comparing “focus” in the writing process to sex, the other illustrating the meaning of “simile” with a famed belly dancer’s comparison of her profession to “Jell-o on a plate with a vibrator under the plate.” After seven female students complained, UNH administrators suspended Silva without pay and told him to undergo psychological counseling before petitioning for reinstatement.