As state colleges and universities begin the school year, deans and trustees should familiarize themselves with a group called "Scholars for 9/11 Truth." This group, the new locus for September 11 conspiracy theories, believes that the official history of the terrorist attacks is a hoax. But unlike garden-variety conspiracy clubs, this one happens to count nearly two dozen professors, instructors and other affiliates at state college and universities around the country among its members. Insofar as these people allow their nutty political beliefs to infect their teaching, school officials had better be equipped to make some decisions. The University of New Hampshire probably wishes it had that advice last week. Over the weekend, a tenured professor of psychology, William Woodward, came under fire from Sen. Judd Gregg, New Hampshire Republican and State Senate President Ted Gatsas for telling the New Hampshire Union Leader that "there was a genuine conspiracy on the part of insiders at the highest level of our government" to orchestrate the September 11 terrorist attacks. This, of course, was compounded by another revelation: Mr. Woodward hopes to teach a class on the attacks. The class would examine them "in psychological terms -- terms like belief, conspiracy, fear, truth, courage, group dynamics," he told the Union Leader.
It's not just Mr. Woodward's sheer nuttiness that bothers people. It's the possibility of taxpayer-funded classes which legitimate that nuttiness. "I believe it is inappropriate for someone at a public university which is supported with taxpayer dollars to take positions that are generally an affront to the sensibility of most Americans," Mr. Gregg said, capturing perfectly the type of sentiment school officials will hear over and over as groups like "Scholars for 9/11 Truth" gain steam.
The university has backed Mr. Woodward so far, which will only make sense if the professor can show that he won't be teaching his theories as though they were rooted in fact or accepted outside his own echo chambers. That will be a tall order. The Union Leader quotes one class attendee, a National Guardsman who served in Iraq, who vouches for the professor. "He certainly doesn't try to indoctrinate the kids ... He just puts it out there." Even that is probably too much for taxpayers who hear about it.
Most people have come to expect a certain amount of nuttiness from academia and are reconciled to it -- but not when it comes to September 11. Conspiracists can believe whatever they choose in the privacy of their own homes and can proclaim it in lecture halls they rent with their own resources. But don't expect taxpayers to subsidize it. Those who do will get the William Woodward treatment.