Editorial: Back in a flash
Professor who exposed himself to return to teaching
Published: Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Updated: Wednesday, February 13, 2013 16:02
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Larkin
German professor Edward Larkin will be returning to campus this spring and teaching classes next fall, according to an article that appeared on page 5 of today's issue of The New Hampshire.
Perhaps you remember the name. He's the professor who showed his penis to a mother and teenager in the parking lot of a grocery store. He then proceeded to drive down Route 101 with his genitals hanging out of his zipper as he cruised on his motorcycle.
When police pulled him over, his genitals were still hanging out.
And, UNH students, this pervert could be your professor next fall.
Larkin's actions are mind numbing. Equally mind numbing, though, are the actions of the Foreign Language Department in the time since the 2009 incident.
Just read what Marco Dorfsman, the chair of the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures had to say about Larkin.
"While I recognize this is a difficult and awkward situation, I believe we can all get past it and move on to what matters more: teaching, learning and scholarship in our academic community," Dorfsman said. "He is an effective and inspiring teacher; I have no concerns about him being in the classroom."
Really, professor Dorfsman?
What matters more is teaching? More than a grown man who exposes his penis and shows it to teenage girls in public?
Guess where Larkin will be next fall? Surrounded by teenage girls and young women. The thought of that is disgusting.
Put yourself in the shoes of a parent sending his or her young daughter to college. A week into her experience, you find out she's sitting five feet away from a man who pled guilty to indecent exposure three times a week.
And what can you do at that point? The department has his back, after all.
That's why we're recommending that all students boycott his course when he resumes standing in front of classrooms next fall.
Perhaps that is what it will take to remove Larkin from the faculty.
Don't blame administration – President Mark Huddleston and Co. tried to dismiss Larkin from his teaching position following his arrest. They cited "professional incompetence, deliberate neglect of duty or moral delinquency of a grave order" as reasons to dismiss the professor. Sounds accurate.
Larkin appealed and the case was brought before arbitrator Michael Ryan who decided that Larkin's act was not delinquency of a "grave order," and UNH didn't have the right to dismiss Larkin.
If a professor knowingly and deliberately showing his genitals to young women doesn't count as a "grave order," it's frightening to think of what else isn't "grave" enough.
We just hope we don't have to find out.
By not only keeping Larkin on staff, but also allowing him to enter classrooms again, the arbitrator and foreign language department have opened the floodgates to more professor perversion.
We hope the department wakes up and has the good sense to pull his courses next fall.
And if they don't, it's on the students. Don't sign up for his course. Send the department a message. At some point, they'll have to realize teaching doesn't come before actions like his.
21 comments
With that said, I'm fairly certain that the mother and daughter did not want to see this German professor whip his penis out in front of them.
that he is not a danger to anyone and that he is
a low risk to show a recurrence of this behavior.
His prognosis is excellent."
is a member of the 
