Dankprofessor’s Weblog

A weblog examining sexual politics in higher education and beyond.

Professor Dave Cass dies

It is with a great sense of sorrow that I must report that Professor Dave Cass of the Department of Economics of the University of Pennsylvania has passed away.  The Chair of the economics department sent an email to the community indicating that he had passed away.
 
David Cass played a significant role in my intellectual and ethical development.  It was Dave in the middle 1990s who showed me up close and personal how university intrusion into the private lives of students and professors represents an abuse of power and functions to needlessly hurt couples who simply want to be left alone.  Dave had the inner strength to directly confront and challenge his accusers.  David Cass and Claudia Stachel became the first student professor couple to come forward publicly and declare their right to have a private life and simply be left alone.  He encouraged me to write about their experiences, and I did so.  One can read my article on the “Cass Case” by clicking here.
 
Last August, Dave and I communicated concerning the initiation of the dankprofessor blog.  We decided to create a post devoted to the many aspects of his fight against sexual correctness and sexual repression. Click here to read this post.  In September of last year we were scheduled to meet in Philadelphia to brainstorm on matters of mutual concern.  Due to my own health problems, on very short notice I had to postpone our meeting.  Much to my sorrow there will now be no meeting.  I was planning to meet with him this forthcoming September.
 
I know that Dave’s contributions to the field of economics were huge and that he successfully mentored many students who went on to become successful economists and academicians.
 
Personally, I will do what I can to communicate to others the good works of Professor David Cass.
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If you wish, you can write to me directly at dankprofessor@msn.com
Guest commentaries should also be submitted for consideration
to the same email address.
Barry M. Dank aka the dankprofessor™
© Copyright 2008

April 18, 2008 Posted by dankprofessor | David Cass, ethics, higher education, obituary, sexual politics, university of pennsylvania | | No Comments

Professor David Cass and the University of Pennsylvania

David Cass, University of Pennsylvania economics professor is one of the very few professors who has publicly defended his rights to privacy and association in the context of his being persecuted by the UPENN administration for having engaged in a consensual relationship with a former student, Claudia Stachel.  Claudia Stachel publicly joined Dave Cass in protesting the actions of the UPENN administration.

This post will contain a link to the article I wrote on David Cass in the 1990s; comments from Dave which were emailed to me today, August 31, 2007.  And a link to material on Dave’s website; the material is of great value to those seriously interested in campus sexual and political correctness; Dave also includes some of his own satirical material on this episode.

Article on the Cass case by the Dankprofessor. 

Comment from David Cass- 

My professional qualifications can be gleaned from my Website1, my ethicalprinciples (in part) inferred from what follows. The imbroglio I was involved inwith Penn’s foolishly politically correct administration in the mid-nineties — what my co-conspirator Claudia Stachel and I early on labelled the “Fondling Affair” —is accurately recounted in Barry’s piece, which is linked above. My initial reaction to this incredible episode, as well as its denouement also appear on my Website.2

During the same year a typical ban of certain liaisons (sic, for those of politically correct moral persuasion) in academia was proposed in the Penn Faculty Senate, and then adopted by vote of the faculty. I’ve always liked my satiricalcomment on the proposed ban, which is linked below. This despite the fact that Daphne Patai may be the only one (besides me) to read and enjoy it; I hope you will too.

1See, especially, the section Curriculum Vitae.

2See “On Women” and “Follow-up …” (this last stuff needs better labelling, say, “The Outcome of the Fondling Affair”), respectively, in the section Miscellaneous Links.

Proposed ban followed by comments from Dave Cass.

September 1, 2007 Posted by dankprofessor | David Cass, university of pennsylvania | | 1 Comment