BYU takes on a 9/11 conspiracy professor
It was Steven Jones's résumé as much as his September 11 research that rapidly turned the Brigham Young University physics professor into one of the most prominent 9/11 conspiracy theorists. But with the university's decision last week to place him on paid leave and review his work, Jones may trade academic standing for another vaunted status, the movement's first martyr.
Jones, the cofounder of the group Scholars for 9/11 Truth, is not the first academic to have taken heat for promoting September 11 conspiracy theories.
But while other universities have resisted outside calls to remove teachers from the faculty, saying such decisions would violate academic freedom, BYU says it has decided that Jones's "increasingly speculative and accusatory" statements merited concern and has given his classes this semester to other professors.
Jones brought both personal and professional credibility to 9/11 Truth, which sorely needed both. His conservative Mormon background made him an unlikely promoter of conspiracy theories. Even more important in a movement whose academics are often philosophy or theology professors, Jones has taught physics at BYU since 1985 and has "continuing status," roughly equivalent to tenure.
In his paper "Why Indeed Did the WTC Buildings Completely Collapse?" Jones suggests the towers were felled by a controlled demolition rather than by damage caused by the airliners. His claims were tackled head-on in a fact sheet last month from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which created a 43-volume report about the collapse of the World Trade Center towers.
In the paper, Jones does not make specific accusations about who brought about the towers' collapse and avoids the casual finger-pointing that characterizes much of the movement. But when pressed, he cautiously blames the supposed demolition on Bush administration officials eager to sow war in the Middle East.
Besides worries about his accusations, Carri Jenkins, a spokesman for the university, said BYU was also concerned that Jones's work on September 11 had not been published in credible peer-reviewed journals. Jones edits the Journal of 9/11 Studies, an online collection of articles that has included his work.
Jones directed requests for comment to his previous writings on September 11. In July, he said his colleagues at BYU were generally supportive of his push to investigate the collapse of the WTC towers and nearby Building 7.
The decision to place Jones on leave marks a departure from traditional standards of intellectual freedom, says Robert O'Neil, a law professor at the University of Virginia and the director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression. University faculty are generally punished for making bizarre claims only when such claims relate to their area of expertise, suggesting a lack of competence in their chosen field.
Because he is an electrical engineering professor, for example, Arthur Butz at Northwestern has not been punished for his vocal Holocaust denial. The same would probably not be true of a professor of modern European history. But BYU's explanation for Jones's review cites his accusations about government involvement—which are outside his area of expertise—not the quality of his research into the collapse's physics, the discipline in which errors would suggest a lack of fitness to carry on his job.
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