Sometimes professors do things that make a university proud, and then other times they do things that bring the university shame. And in even worse times, the professor is arrogant about it.

In my hometown, the Beverly neighborhood of Chicago, Christopher Cooper, a sociology/anthropology professor at St. Xavier University, spent three days in New York assisting other volunteers searching for survivors in the wreckage that was the World Trade Center Complex.

Isn’t that nice?

A native of New York and a former Washington police officer, Cooper felt a special link to the devastation wrought by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“I remember what it was like to hear on the radio that a police officer had been shot,” Cooper told The Beverly Review, my neighborhood’s weekly paper.

“But 78 police officers, likely dead, under that rubble. Now, I was grieving for everyone.”

At 10 p.m. the night of the attacks he hopped in his car and drove all night to get to ground zero and lend a hand. Cooper worked on morgue detail and the bucket brigade.

Here at Eastern, a sociology/anthropology professor also made headlines in the local paper. Richard Swartzbaugh took initiative after the Sept. 11 attacks to alienate his students enough to the point that one walked out and another wrote a letter to the editor in The Daily Eastern News, exposing the ridiculous and disturbing comments Swartzbaugh made.

I absolutely agree Swartzbaugh cannot be disciplined for his comments. Luckily for him, the matter likely falls under the privilege of “academic freedom” and the First Amendment.

While I agree with the university’s position on the situation, and I would fight to the death for Swartzbaugh to be able to say such things, I still can’t believe the man can sleep soundly at night.

Following the attacks, students were confused, scared and worried. After all, this was the worst attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor, some 40 years before most students were born.

And Swartzbaugh, feeling the significance of the event, the confusion of the country and the fear of the students, persisted to allegedly insinuate President Bush and the American Red Cross were either behind the atrocity or “taking advantage of it.”

A letter to the editor alleged that Swartzbaugh proclaimed all Arabs should be placed in interment camps like the Japanese were during World War II.

Isn’t that nice?

I hope there wasn’t anyone of Middle East or Asian descent in his classroom. An intelligent discussion of the situation is expected in a university environment even if the United States ended up being blamed.

While some professors dropped everything to help a country in shock and fear, others exploited the situation to further disturb American citizens.

This is not to say all Eastern professors are like this, absolutely not. In fact, I have never encountered such behavior in my classes and hopefully there will never be a situation like Sept. 11 when I wouldn’t tolerate the behavior either.

Perhaps the most disturbing part of the whole situation is the arrogance of Swartzbaugh.

As almost 10,000 students are paying near $100 per credit hour, some which goes to support Swartzbaugh’s untouchable tenured position, he expressed a carefree attitude toward the possibility of reprimanding his reckless actions.

“I’m tenured and very close to retirement,” Swartzbaugh told The Daily Eastern News. “Right now, I’m not easily intimidated.

“I like controversy.”

Isn’t that nice?

Joseph Ryan is a senior journalism major and a biweekly columnist for The Daily Eastern News. His e-mail address is [email protected]. Columns are the opinion of the author.