From the OC Register:
Fred Smoller is gone from his post as head of Brandman University's master of public administration program. He's not fired, as he has tenure, but the situation is a sticky one that raises thorny issues of academic freedom with critics.... Mark Petracca, long-time political science professor at UC Irvine, agreed. "It's outrageous," Petracca said. "Fred was having students do research. He didn't have an ax to grind here. Even the stuff he's written about the county becoming a single entity is main stream kind of thinking about how we deal with what Paul Peterson at Harvard called 'proper city limits.' What's the optimal size for a governmental entity to be? When Marian Bergeson first came on the Board of Supervisors - right around the time of bankruptcy - her proposal was to do away with county government. She didn't stick around to make that happen, but it's hardly a radical thing to say. It's something worth taking seriously as an idea. It's certainly not an idea for anyone to get upset over - never mind go to the president of the university to get someone removed from a position of responsibility.

For the full story, please visit http://taxdollars.ocregister.com/2011/10/12/professor-who-offended-power....