Professor With Pro-Nazi Ties Dismissed

By Associated PressApril 2, 2005, 10:26 PM EST
TEANECK, N.J. -- An adjunct history professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University who hosts a webcast program called "White Viewpoint" has been dismissed for missing too many days of class, school officials said. Jacques Pluss, 51, acknowledged he is a member of the National Socialist Movement, a pro-Nazi group. University officials said Pluss was dismissed for missing too many days of a class, but Pluss said each of his three absences was excused with a doctor's note. "What I suspect is somebody on campus discovered I crossed the line of political correctness," Pluss said. John Snyder, dean of Fairleigh Dickinson's University College, said that Pluss was replaced because he had missed four or five days this semester and would not be allowed to return. "It's not politics, it's hate mongering," Snyder said. "It's just hatred directed at the very students he taught." Pluss will be paid for the remainder of his contract through the end of the school year, Snyder said. Pluss, who has taught at the university since 2002, said he joined the National Socialist Movement in February but was careful to keep his views a secret on campus. "I never mentioned my political affiliations to anyone on campus, either students or faculty," he said, adding that he was trained to bring objectivity to teaching assignments. He was previously a tenured professor at William Paterson University in Wayne, N.J., from 1984 to 2000. Natalia Galbetti, a Fairleigh Dickinson freshman from Brazil, said the anti-foreigner comments Pluss made on his Internet show were not consistent with the way he treated his students. "He was always so nice to me," she said. "He knew that I was a foreigner. He definitely kept it out of the classroom."

Source: http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-professor-dismissed,0,3124413.story?coll=sns-ap-nation-headlines