What Sheffield Has Done is Dishonest, Misleading, and Disgusting

In 2009, the University of Sheffield proposed to close the Department of Biblical Studies, perhaps the world’s foremost and most innovative biblical studies department.

The response included a barrage of letters protesting the plan from academics worldwide. Many of the letters are preserved on the Save Biblical Studies website. Responding to these protests, the University promised to retain the Department of Biblical Studies and to strengthen it.

But as early as 2014, the University of Sheffield again decided to disband the Department. The Department no longer exists, and current academic staff are now employed to a “Research Institute for Biblical Studies“, which has been interpreted as a short-term stop-gap measure before biblical studies at Sheffield ceases completely.

But what about all those academic protests? Did they count for nothing? Not at all. The letters of protest have been mined by the University of Sheffield, and used as marketing endorsements for biblical studies at Sheffield.

Appallingly, the University has taken letters of protest, culled them, edited out bits, and then made use of them as though they were promotions of the new Research unit-

All of these endorsements were culled from the letters of protest written in 2009 against the closure of the Department. They are now being used as “endorsements” of the University of Sheffield after the closure of the Department. To be clear, the protests are all being callously misrepresented as unqualified positive statements about biblical studies at Sheffield University.

Read the whole evidentiary piece here.  I’ve never been more dismayed by an academic institution before.  Someone is a deceiver at Sheffield and worse than Mark Driscoll in his or her misuse of material.

UPDATE:  Here’s a screenshot of the cropped and misleading quotes, for that inevitable moment when the University yanks that segment of its page.