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Politics : Just the Facts, Ma'am: A Compendium of Liberal Fiction -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Peter Dierks who wrote (71084)	4/15/2009 12:06:16 AM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 90947

It's gone beyond educational prejudice. It's institutionalized prejudice just like in the MSM. They've gotten to the point where they never hear a non-LWE POV let alone a dissenting POV. That's why we see widespread indoctrination into LWE dogma from kindergarten through graduate school.

To: Peter Dierks who wrote (71084)	4/15/2009 3:40:55 AM
From: Sully-	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 90947

And it continues to get worse. ************************* Requried group-think** Betsy's Page George Leef details a disturbing trend at Virginia Tech. <<< Let’s do a little thought experiment. Suppose that the administration at a state university announced that it was going to change its policy regarding promotion and tenure for faculty members to include the following language: “Special attention will be given to the candidates involvement with efforts to advance laissez-faire capitalism.” Is there any doubt that the announcement would swiftly generate a tidal wave of indignant opposition? We would expect the American Association of University Professors, for example, to proclaim the new policy an affront to academic freedom and a blatant effort at thought control. The AAUP’s press release might explain that this policy would cause faculty members to refrain from saying or doing anything that might be regarded as in any way hostile to laissez-faire capitalism. That would be exactly right. Colleges should not have ideological litmus tests that faculty members must pass before they can be considered for promotion and tenure. A faculty member’s economic philosophy has nothing to do with his competence in teaching and research. Now let’s return to the real world. In March, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (nearly always just called Virginia Tech) announced that it was considering new guidelines for faculty assessment. A crucial sentence in the proposal reads, “University and college committees require special attention be given to documented involvement in diversity initiatives.” >>> It is supremely ironic that, in order to promote diversity, the university is denying diversity of thought. That is the one diversity which is forbidden. <<< There no more is universal agreement on the desirability of laissez-faire capitalism than there is on “diversity,” but the latter enjoys sacred cow status within the realm of American higher education. Therefore, university administrators see nothing wrong in setting up a litmus test of fidelity to their “diversity initiatives.” To see how blatantly inconsistent this proposal is with the core academic value of free inquiry, imagine a tenure track assistant professor of chemistry who comes to the conclusion that the push for ever-increasing “diversity” on campus detracts from the educational mission of the school. Let us say he finds that many of the students admitted under “affirmative action” policies aren’t capable of handling the workload in his course. Should he say anything about it? If his school operates under promotion and tenure guidelines like those proposed at Virginia Tech, doing so would be risky. Open, honest commentary critical of “diversity” might not be held against him, but he has no way of knowing that. It would be much safer not to put his career in jeopardy by writing or saying anything negative about the diversity policies at the school. Colleges and universities constantly proclaim that they want to teach students “critical thinking” but Virginia Tech’s guidelines would stifle it among faculty members who aspire to tenure and promotion. >>> betsyspage.blogspot.com