Guillermo Gonzalez (born 1963) is a Cuban-born American astronomer who is a proponent of the pseudoscientific principle of intelligent design and a research scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
[citation needed] Gonzalez was a regular contributor to Facts for Faith magazine produced by Reasons To Believe, an old earth creationist group.
[11] Two years prior to his consideration for tenure, approximately 130 members of the faculty of Iowa State University signed a statement co-authored by associate professors James Colbert and Hector Avalos and assistant professor Michael Clough opposing "all attempts to represent Intelligent Design as a scientific endeavor."
Avalos also criticized the Discovery Institute for "combining sentences from different sections of [the statement] in order create a fragmented syntax that appears to target Gonzalez":[15] Here is [sic] the three original sentences, snippets of which were recombined by the Discovery Institute: [emphasis in original]Two years later, an article in the local newspaper The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reported Gonzalez's appeal against his denial of tenure and claimed he was "the unnamed target" of the ISU petition.
On June 1, 2007, Gregory Geoffroy, president of Iowa State University, rejected Gonzalez's appeal and upheld the denial of tenure.
In making this decision, Geoffroy states that he "specifically considered refereed publications, [Gonzalez's] level of success in attracting research funding and grants, the amount of telescope observing time he had been granted, the number of graduate students he had supervised, and most importantly, the overall evidence of future career promise in the field of astronomy"[17] and that Gonzalez "simply did not show the trajectory of excellence that we expect in a candidate seeking tenure in physics and astronomy – one of our strongest academic programs."
The Chronicle observed that Gonzalez had no major grants during his seven years at ISU, had published no significant research during that time and had only one graduate student finish a dissertation.
[26][33] The Discovery Institute writes that the email records "demonstrate that a campaign was organized and conducted against Gonzalez by his colleagues, with the intent to deny him tenure".
[35] Observers such as PZ Myers have stated that the Discovery Institute's statement "relies heavily on fragmentary quotes taken from emails that they obtained through an open records inquiry", that the "entire anti-evolution movement" has a track-record of taking quotations out of context, that "the DI has not made the full text of the sources available for examination", leading to a "reluctan[ce] to accept the quotes provided at face value", and that in any case "[t]his is precisely what his colleagues are supposed to do: discuss concerns about his tenure case.
[40] Expelled portrays Gonzalez as a victim of religious discrimination and the Discovery Institute campaign asserts that his intelligent design writings should not have been considered in the review.
What I know with certainty is that Gonzalez's views on intelligent design, with which I utterly disagree, had no bearing whatsoever on my vote on his tenure case.
"[35] In late 2007, Gonzalez accepted a non-tenure track position in the astronomy program of the Grove City College in Pennsylvania starting in fall semester 2008.
[43][44] Grove City College acquired an observatory from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania in February 2008 that will be utilized for astronomy classes as well as faculty and student research.
[45] On 12 June 2013, Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, announced it had engaged Gonzalez as an assistant professor in the department of physics and astronomy.
At the time, the university was already investigating a complaint that another assistant professor in that department, Eric Hedin, had been promoting intelligent design in an honors symposium titled "The Boundaries of Science".
[46] Concerns about the teaching of religion in science courses had been raised by academics, including professor of biology Jerry Coyne, who commented on the new hire that if Gonzales "wants to talk about it in his writing and speeches, he has a right to do that.
"[47] The Discovery institute's Evolution News and Views website published a statement Guillermo Gonzalez had issued about his new position as a faculty member: I am very happy to join the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Ball State University.
"[48]At the end of July, Professor Jo Ann Gora as president of the university stated that science courses would not include teaching intelligent design and that Hedin would remain on the staff, but his symposium would not continue.
"[49] The Discovery Institute had meetings with Indiana Senator Dennis Kruse, chairman of the Education Committee, and three of his fellow Republican legislators.
The Discovery Institute's vice president John G. West alleged that "one science class is covering intelligent design in order to bash it.