just plain goofiness?

Can't say I buy into this, but I've got no problem with him espousing this as a theory or an alternate expalnation.

Does his position as a university instructor in some way "unfairly" privledge his views and perhaps give them a surface "plausibility" compared to that of a   cranky drunk at closing time in a workingman's bar spouting the same line?

You may or may not be familiar with "Loose Change:911", a documentary project compiled for just a few thousand dollars by a group of students. It questions aspects of 911 and provides publicly available details that will have even the most rabidly partisan individual questioning authority.
This documentary, produced by students both male and female, Left and right, does not use politics, but pure, logical, rational science and mathematics in the delineation of their theories.
Most importantly, it will make you think. A dangerous activity in this day and age of  primordial Orwellian ooze.

The nit wit can say anything he wants but the taxpayers don't have to pay him to do it or provide him a podium from which to do it. If he believes his malarkey he should be glad to do it on his own nickel.