[North-NV-Greens] Fwd: Conservatives Flip Academic Freedom Debate

Sun Dec 26 23:05:52 PST 2004

>
>Conservatives Flip Academic Freedom Debate
>
>Liberal professors are accused of attempting to indoctrinate
>students. But some teachers say pupils are trying to avoid
>new ideas.
>
>By Justin Pope
>
>December 26, 2004 by the Associated Press
>
>http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1226-07.htm
>
>At the University of North Carolina, three incoming freshmen
>sue over a reading assignment they say offends their
>Christian beliefs.
>
>In Colorado and Indiana, a national conservative group
>publicizes student allegations of left-wing bias by
>professors. Faculty get hate mail and are pictured in mock
>"wanted" posters; at least one college says a teacher
>received a death threat.
>
>And at New York's Columbia University, a documentary alleging
>that teachers intimidate students who support Israel draws
>the attention of administrators.
>
>The three episodes differ in important ways, but all touch on
>an issue of growing prominence on college campuses.
>
>Traditionally, clashes over academic freedom pitted
>politicians or administrators against instructors who wanted
>to express their opinions and teach as they saw fit. But
>increasingly, students are invoking academic freedom,
>contending that biased professors violate their right to
>classes free from indoctrination.
>
>In many ways, the trend echoes past campus conflicts - but
>turns them around. Once, it was liberal activists citing the
>importance of "diversity" in pressing their agendas for
>curriculum change. Now, conservatives have adopted much of
>the same language in calling for greater openness to their
>viewpoints.
>
>Similarly, academic freedom guidelines have traditionally
>been cited to protect left-leaning students from punishment
>for disagreeing with teachers about such issues as U.S.
>neutrality before World War II and involvement in Vietnam.
>Now, those same guidelines are being invoked by conservative
>students who support the war in Iraq.
>
>To many professors, there's a new and deeply troubling aspect
>to this latest chapter in the debate over academic freedom:
>students trying to dictate what they don't want to be taught.
>
>"Even the most contentious or disaffected of students in the
>'60s or early '70s never really pressed this kind of issue,"
>said Robert O'Neil, former University of Virginia president
>and director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the
>Protection of Free Expression.
>
>Those behind the trend call it an antidote to the liberal
>dominance of university faculties. But many educators, while
>agreeing that students should never feel bullied, worry that
>they just want to avoid exposure to ideas that challenge
>their core beliefs - an essential part of education.
>
>Some also fear that teachers will shy away from sensitive
>topics or fend off criticism by "balancing" their syllabuses
>with opposing viewpoints, even if they represent inferior
>scholarship.
>
>"Faculty retrench. They are less willing to discuss
>contemporary problems and I think everyone loses out," said
>Joe Losco, professor of political science at Ball State
>University in Indiana who has supported two colleagues
>targeted for alleged bias. "It puts a chill in the air."
>
>Conservatives say a chill is in order.
>
>A recent study by Santa Clara University researcher Daniel
>Klein estimated that among social science and humanities
>faculty nationwide, Democrats outnumber Republicans by at
>least seven to one; in some fields, it's as high as 30 to
>one. And in the last election, the two employers whose
>workers contributed the most to Sen. John F. Kerry's
>presidential campaign were the University of California
>system and Harvard University.
>
>Many teachers insist personal politics don't affect teaching.
>
>But in a recent survey of students at 50 schools by the
>American Council of Trustees and Alumni, which argues that
>there is too little intellectual diversity on campus, 49%
>reported some professors frequently commented on politics in
>class even if it was outside the subject matter. Thirty-one
>percent said they believed that there were some courses in
>which they needed to agree with a professor's views to get a
>good grade.
>
>Leading the movement is Students for Academic Freedom, with
>chapters on 135 campuses and close ties to David Horowitz, a
>onetime liberal campus activist turned conservative
>commentator. The group posts student complaints on its
>website about alleged episodes of grading bias and
>unbalanced, anti-American propaganda by professors - often in
>classes.
>
>Instructors "need to make students aware of the spectrum of
>scholarly opinion," Horowitz said. "You can't get a good
>education if you're only getting half the story."
>
>Conservatives contend that they are discouraged from
>expressing their views in class, and are even blackballed
>from graduate school slots and jobs.
>
>"I feel like [faculty] are so disconnected from students that
>they do these things and they can just get away with them,"
>said Kris Wampler, who recently identified himself as one of
>the students who sued the University of North Carolina. Now a
>junior, he objected when all incoming students were assigned
>to read a book about the Koran before they got to campus. "A
>lot of students feel like they're being discriminated
>against."
>
>So far, his and other efforts are having mixed results. At
>UNC, the students lost their legal case, but the university
>no longer uses the word "required" in describing the reading
>program for incoming students (the plaintiffs' main
>objection).
>
>In Colorado, conservatives withdrew a legislative proposal
>for an "academic bill of rights" backed by Horowitz, but only
>after state universities agreed to adopt its principles.
>
>At Ball State, the provost sided with Prof. George Wolfe
>after a student published complaints about Wolfe's peace
>studies course, but the episode has attracted local
>attention. Horowitz and backers of the academic bill of
>rights plan to introduce it in the Indiana legislature - as
>well as in up to 20 other states.
>
>At Columbia, anguished debate followed the screening of a
>film by an advocacy group called the David Project that
>alleges some faculty violate students' rights by using the
>classroom as a platform for anti-Israeli political
>propaganda. (One Israeli student claims that a professor
>taunted him by asking, "How many Palestinians did you kill?")
>Administrators responded this month by setting up a committee
>to investigate students' complaints.
>
>In the wider debate, both sides cite the guidelines on
>academic freedom first set out in 1915 by the American Assn.
>of University Professors.
>
>The objecting students emphasize the portion calling on
>teachers to "set forth justly Ö the divergent opinions of
>other investigators." But many teachers note that the
>guidelines also say that instructors need not "hide [their]
>own opinions under a mountain of equivocal verbiage," and
>that their job is teaching students "to think for
>themselves."
>
>Horowitz believes that the American Assn. of University
>Professors, which opposes his bill of rights, and liberals in
>general are now the establishment and have abandoned their
>commitment to real diversity and student rights.
>
>But critics say Horowitz is pushing a political agenda, not
>an academic one.
>
>"It's often phrased in the language of academic freedom.
>That's what's so strange about it," said Ellen Schrecker, a
>Yeshiva University historian who has written about academic
>freedom during the McCarthy area. "What they're saying is,
>'We want people to reflect our point of view.' "
>
>Horowitz's critics also insist that his campaign is getting
>more attention than it deserves, riling conservative bloggers
>but attracting little alarm from most students. They insist
>that even most liberal professors give fair grades to
>conservative students who work hard and support their
>arguments.
>
>Often, the facts of particular cases are disputed. At Ball
>State, senior Brett Mock published a detailed account
>accusing Wolfe of anti-Americanism in a peace studies class
>and of refusing to tolerate the view that the U.S. invasion
>of Iraq might have been justified. In a telephone interview,
>Wolfe vigorously disputed Mock's allegations. He provided
>copies of a letter of support from other students in the
>class, and from the provost saying that she had found nothing
>wrong with the course.
>
>Horowitz, who has also criticized Ball State's program, had
>little sympathy when asked if Wolfe deserved to get hate e-
>mails from strangers.
>
>"These people are such sissies," he said. "I get hate mail
>every single day. What can I do about it? It's called the
>Internet."
>
>(c) 2004 Associated Press
>
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-- 
Paul Etxeberri

"Forests precede civilizations and deserts follow"   ---Chateaubriand