|
Students Rebel against Biased Liberal Professors
Traditionally, clashes over academic freedom have pitted politicians or administrators against instructors who wanted to express their opinions and teach as they saw fit. But increasingly, it is students who are invoking academic freedom, claiming biased professors are violating their right to a classroom free from indoctrination. For example, at the University of North Carolina, three incoming freshmen sued over a reading assignment they said offended their Christian beliefs. In Colorado and Indiana, a national conservative group publicized student allegations of left-wing bias by professors. Faculty received hate mail and were pictured in mock "wanted" posters; at least one college said teacher received a death threat. And at Columbia University in New York, a documentary film alleging that teachers intimidate students who support Israel drew the attention of administrators.
| That's the core of the problem. The teachers can (and do) punish the kids who don't toe the party line... |
The three episodes differ in important ways, but all touch on an issue of growing prominence on college campuses. In many ways, the trend echoes past campus conflicts — but turns them around. Once, it was liberal campus activists who cited the importance of "diversity" in pressing their agendas for curriculum change. Now, conservatives have adopted much of the same language in calling for a 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 American neutrality before World War II and U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Now, conservative students who support the liberation of Iraq are invoking those same guidelines.
| It all depends on whose ox is being gored, doesn't it? |
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 president of the University of Virginia and now director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression.
| I seem to remember great blocs of curriculum being ripped out and thrown away in the name of "relevance." I believe that occurred at the vocal insistence of students dictating what they wanted to be taught. Through the fog of accumulated time I can remember research programs being tossed, speakers being hooted off the podium, teach-ins, sit-ins, "love-ins" and "heppenings," all at the instance of students setting the agenda that drove the curriculum. |
Posted by: trailing wife 2004-12-28 |
