The Price of Cruelty

Many of the major news outlets are reporting that a shooting has occurred at the University of Alabama Huntsville. Here is CNN's account. According to Fox, Dr. Amy Bishop has been arrested and charged with the crime.

Three faculty members were fatally shot on campus. Fox News reports that Bishop had been denied tenure before the incident occurred. Some are therefore suggesting the shooting was Bishop's attempt to exact vengeance.

Since there has been no trial, I am not sure if Bishop is guilty or not. Yet the following message is on the University's Web Site:

There has been a shooting on campus.  The shooter has been apprehended.  The campus is closed tonight.  Everyone is encouraged to go home.  Classes are canceled for tonight.  

This indicates that the school officials are relatively convinced that Bishop is guilty.

Bishop is a strange suspect. One does not generally suspect a neuroscientist with a Harvard PhD to go on a shooting spree.

The woman appears to be quite brilliant.

According to the university's blog, Bishop developed a technology called InQ, which was, "designed to increase the precision and consistency of cell growth in laboratory experimentation." 

She had her own lab, her own personnel. Her graduates were successful. She was involved in a space experiment that sent nerve cells to space. She had received funding for her projects, at one point winning $4000 in research support for a proposal. She and her husband also won $25,000 in a business competition by creating a portable cell incubator.

One suspects that someone with so much success, such a large library of publications and such a reputation would be able to find work easily. Why, then, would she worry so much about tenure?

If the rumors that Bishop killed her colleagues out of vengeance are correct, it would mean that Bishop placed the value of cruelty to others over her science, students, career and even her life.

The AP is reporting another disturbing murder.

In Greensburg, Pennsylvania, a disabled woman with the mental abilities of a young girl was tortured and killed by six people she believed were her friends. They forced her to drink urine, detergent and soap, beat her with a variety of objects before stabbing her fatally. Of the six, the youngest is 17 and the oldest is 36. Each had plenty of life left to live. Yet if they are convicted, they will have thrown their lives away. Cruelty comes at a high price. Yet many seem willing to pay it. One wonders why.

Comments

[Anonymous]

Being denied tenure is a virtual death knell for a scholar's career. It doesn't matter what publications you have or your former reputation. It is possible to regroup and find further academic employment after being denied tenure but there is no guarantee. Far from it. No scholar is ever guaranteed work. No one no matter how qualified is every promised a job. No one finds academic work easily. There simply are not that many positions.

I don't condone her actions. I do understand her desperation.

[vic]

medical billings schools are the biggest rip offs. The Dr. Lady does appear to be brilliant. She may just have entered a place where other things came to play with respect to tenure, such as politics. If so, too bad she wasnt mature enough to realize it was a bad situation.
Just because its a state research university doesnt always mean they are level headed about the assessing the faculty they have. Its also possible she may have been denied because of what we saw today- I mean mental issues.

[ScottD]

I don't condone her actions either, but this professor had a stellar resume and was an inventor as well and probably deserved trunue. I suspect this was a case of cruel office politics played on her. In this case I think the victims brought this on themselves. I hope Amy Bishop gets exonerated.

[Academix]

This woman was probably a quota hire at Harvard and Huntsville.

You have to deal with these types all the time - they feel entitled to everything and blame others (men, that is) for their incompetence / failure. In the PC university environment, you can't even tell these women early on it would be better for them (and everyone else) to leave academia if they can't handle the pressure.

[Miranda]

Anonymous:

You make a good point, but Bishop and her husband also own their own business. So, in this case, if Bishop is, indeed, guilty, the act looks more like one made out of anger, rather than desperation.

ScottD: Bishop's anger might be justifiable, but it is the sort of thing one should sue over. Murdering one's colleagues over office politics is by no means justifiable, and the idea of exoneration in such a case is ludicrous.

Academix: You may be right, although Bishop does seem to have accomplished a great deal throughout her career.

[seriously]

Academix - so she's not white or male. Would it be reasonable to read between your lines and guess that you are white and male and see that it is impossible for a female or minority to possess your intellexual prowess? That darn Harvard setting two standards, how did you ever manage to deal with that when you were there?

[CB]

One thing that hasn't been discussed is the quality of her teaching. Just because someone is a brilliant researcher doesn't mean they can teach. All too often they can't, and the students lose out. From what I've read, she was a bad teacher. She should have been denied tenure, but it is too bad it took this long. And people died.