UNH professor says he doesn’t impose his Sept. 11 views on students
http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/.../frontpage1600
By KATHARINE WEBSTER, The Associated Press
Published: Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2006
University of New Hampshire psychology professor William Woodward poses at the entrance of his office in Durham on Tuesday.
CONCORD – A University of New Hampshire professor who thinks government officials orchestrated the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks said he doesn’t impose his opinions on students, but teaches them to discuss and debate differing viewpoints.
“I try not to push a certain view,” psychology professor William Woodward said Tuesday from Durham, as he faced a growing chorus of criticism – and some support. “But at the same time, I might put it out there because it’s important to be a role model for having an opinion but not pushing it on other people.”
Woodward belongs to Scholars for 9/11 Truth, whose members believe that Bush administration officials either planned the attacks or knew about them and allowed them to happen in order to get public opinion behind their policies.
After extensive research and hearings, the bipartisan 9/11 Commission said the federal government communicated poorly and missed opportunities that might have prevented the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. But the commission expressed no doubt that the bombings were planned and carried out by al-Qaida operatives under the leadership of Osama bin Laden.
Gov. John Lynch called Woodward’s beliefs “completely crazy and offensive” on Monday, a day after the New Hampshire Sunday News reported Woodward’s beliefs and harsh criticism of him and the university by numerous political figures.
Lynch has asked the university system’s trustees, which he led before becoming governor two years ago, to investigate Woodward’s teaching practices.
“Although academic freedom is important, if a UNH professor is promoting that view, it reflects a reckless disregard of the facts and raises questions as to why this professor would be teaching at the university,” said Lynch’s spokeswoman, Pamela Walsh.
One of the tenured professor’s students is National Guard Staff Sgt. Zack Bazzi, an Iraq War veteran who strongly disagrees with Woodward about blame for the attacks. He defended Woodward’s right to encourage provocative classroom discussion, however.
Bazzi said Woodward frequently shares “different versions of different events in history,” but said he is careful about how he does it, acknowledging that his own opinions often are controversial, then moving on.
“He certainly doesn’t try to indoctrinate the kids,” Bazzi said. “He just puts it out there,” Bazzi told the Sunday News.
As far as Bazzi remembers, no member of the class agreed with Woodward’s theory of the attacks.
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