HIGHER EDUCATION
Academic Freedom Under Attack
Conservatives in the Ohio State Senate are considering a bill
(http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=%5CNation%5Carchive%5C200502%5CNAT20050211a.html)
that would prohibit public and private college professors from introducing
"controversial matter" into the classroom and shift oversight
(http://www.acluohio.org/issues/free_speech/sb24.htm) of college course content
to state governments and courts. The language of the bill comes from right-wing
activist David Horowitz's " Academic Bill of Rights
(http://www.studentsforacademicfreedom.org/abor.html) ," which recommends states
adopt rules to " restrict what university professors could say in their
classrooms (http://www.ohiodems.org/index.php?display=ArticleDetails&id=205409)
" and halt liberal "pollution" on campus. The bill is both redundant and
misleading -- most colleges already have rules ensuring free expression
(http://www.registrar.fas.harvard.edu/handbooks/student/chapter4/community.html)
(political and otherwise) and Horowitz and his supporters have been able to
offer scant evidence of widespread political bullying. Nevertheless, a variation
of the bill was introduced
(http://www.studentsforacademicfreedom.org/archive/November2003/Kingstonbillnumbered101203.htm)
in the U.S. House of Representatives and has made inroads in six states
(http://www.studentsforacademicfreedom.org/actions(boxattop)/ActionsMainPage(new).html)
. For a chance to fight back against the growing influence of the right wing on
campus, and to help strengthen progressive student voices, check out American
Progress's brand new website, Campus Progress (http://www.campusprogress.org/)
.
MUMPER'S MOTIVATION: Ohio Senate Bill 24
(http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/bills.cfm?ID=126_SB_24) was introduced late
last month by State Sen. Larry Mumper
(http://www.senate.state.oh.us/senators/bios/sd_26.html) (R), who says it is
necessary because "80 percent" of college professors " are Democrats, liberals
or socialists or card-carrying Communists
(http://www.ohiodems.org/index.php?display=IssueDetails&id=205519) " who attempt
to indoctrinate students. When asked how he came to his conclusion, Mumper said
he had been "investigating the issue for months," but cited just one instance
when he had "heard of an Ohio student who said she was discriminated against
because she supported Bush for president." He added that "anti-American"
professors were a threat to young people and said he didn't think it was right
(http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/10892255.htm)
for college campuses to teach students things their parents might disagree with.
OHIO FIGHTS BACK: Last week, the Ohio University student senate passed a
resolution against the bill -- the latest in a string of college students and
administrations to register their opposition. One "senate commissioner" pointed
out the college handbook already mandated similar rules and " suggested that the
Ohio Senate should be concentrating on more important issues in education
(http://www.athensnews.com/issue/article.php3?story_id=19676) " (of which there
are many (http://www.mysan.de/international/article38453.html) ). A political
science professor at Ohio-Wesleyan said the law could stifle debate, and Kenyon
College (http://www.kenyon.edu/index.xml) President S. Georgia Nugent called
Horowitz's thinking " a severe threat
(http://www.ohiodems.org/index.php?display=IssueDetails&id=205519) " to academic
freedom. Two conservative students from Ohio State wrote in an editorial that
they did not think " government should...be involved
(http://www.bucyrustelegraphforum.com/news/stories/20050215/opinion/1992991.html)
" in policing academic debate. They also pointed out that if Horowitz "were a
professor under his own bill, he probably would violate it."
DAVID HOROWITZ, CHAMPION OF OPEN DEBATE: Horowitz, who has been the driving
force behind the movement for "academic freedom" in Ohio and other states, has a
distinguished history of intellectual defamation, historical inaccuracy and
political bullying. He has freely compared American liberals to Islamic
terrorists
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/089526076X/qid=1108503551/sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_b_2_1/102-0136851-7758552)
, slandered the Democratic Party
(http://www.davidcorn.com/2005/02/is_david_horowi.php) and John Kerry for
criticizing the war in Iraq and made a habit
(http://mediamatters.org/items/200412020001) out of accusing his detractors of
racism. Most recently, when African-American historian John Hope Franklin
(http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/franklin/bio.html) questioned Horowitz's 2001
claim that black people benefited from slavery and owed a "debt" to white
America, Horowitz responded by calling the eminent historian " a racial
ideologue rather than a historian (http://hnn.us/roundup/comments/9856.html) "
and "almost pathological." Horowitz has no academic credentials
(http://www.frontpagemag.com/articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=10814) and routinely
distorts facts (http://mediamatters.org/items/200412010006) -- exactly the
crime he accuses "liberal" professors of committing -- to fit his political
bias. (Share your thoughts on David Horowitz at ThinkProgress.org
(http://thinkprogress.org/index.php?p=254) )
WHAT LIBERAL CAMPUS?: Horowitz claims his bill is necessary because college
campuses are a "hostile environment" for conservatives, but as American
Progress's Ben Hubbard and David Halperin point out, "Increasingly, it is the
conservative movement that sets the agenda
(http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/09/12/illiberal_education/)
." Over the past 30 years, "the right has built a powerful campus machine. A
dozen right-wing institutions now spend $38 million annually pushing their
agenda to students. Conservative foundations channel tens of millions more for
academic programs" which "buff an intellectual sheen over conservative
ideology." Groups like Young America's Foundation, which spent more than $10
million on campuses in 2003, have no progressive counterpart. The
ultra-conservative Leadership Institute
(http://www.leadershipinstitute.org/01ABOUTUS/aboutus.htm) -- boasting
prestigious graduates (http://mediamatters.org/items/200502120002) such as
disgraced fake White House reporter Jeff Gannon -- claims it has trained more
than 40,000 college students to become "conservative leaders" since 1979.
THE EMPTY DATABASE: Horowitz's best attempt to prove liberal bias on campus is
his " Academic Freedom Abuse Center
(http://www.studentsforacademicfreedom.org/comp/listComplaint.asp?by=college) ,"
housed on the Students for Academic Freedom (SAS) website. But the database,
which invites students to report having their "rights abused" in class, only
looks impressive until you start reading the actual claims. Some highlights: One
student complains because her professor suggested men and women might see
colors differently
(http://www.studentsforacademicfreedom.org/comp/viewComplaint.asp?complainId=319)
. Another is offended she was asked to watch an " immoral Seinfeld episode
(http://www.studentsforacademicfreedom.org/comp/viewComplaint.asp?complainId=374)
." The latest entry in the database as of Tuesday afternoon was from an Ohio
State student who claims he got a bad grade on an essay because his English
professor " hates families and thinks it's okay to be gay
(http://www.studentsforacademicfreedom.org/comp/viewComplaint.asp?complainId=370)
." One of the complaints comes from an Augustana College senior who is upset her
school used "funds from Student activity fees to bring in the one-sided speaker
David Horowitz
(http://www.studentsforacademicfreedom.org/comp/viewComplaint.asp?complainId=111)
." |
