www.cnn.com/2004/EDUCATION/12/28/academic.freedom.ap/index.html
Education Conservative students, liberal profs Latest fight pits teachers against pupils Wampler Kris Wampler was one of three students who sued the University of North C arolina over a requirement that incoming students read the Quran before coming to campus.
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 teach er received a death threat. And at Columbia University in New York, a documentary film alleging that teachers intimidate students who support Israel draws the attention of a dministrators. The three episodes differ in important ways, but all touch on an issue of growing prominence on college campuses. Traditionally, clashes over academic freedom have pitted politicians or a dministrators against instructors who wanted to express their opinions a nd teach as they saw fit. But increasingly, it is students who are invok ing academic freedom, claiming biased professors are violating their rig ht to a classroom free from indoctrination. In many ways, the trend echoes past campus conflicts -- but turns them ar ound. Once, it was liberal campus activists who cited the importance of "diversity" in pressing their agendas for curriculum change. Now, conser vatives 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 p rotect left-leaning students from punishment for disagreeing with teache rs about such issues as American neutrality before World War II and US 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 lat est chapter in the debate over academic freedom: students trying to dict ate what they don't want to be taught. "Even the most contentious or disaffected of students in the '60s or earl y '70s never really pressed this kind of issue," said Robert O'Neil, for mer president of the University of Virginia and now director of the Thom as Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression. But many educators, while agreeing stud ents should never feel bullied, worry that they just want to avoid expos ure to ideas that challenge their core beliefs -- an essential part of e ducation. Some also fear teachers will shy away from sensitive topics, or fend off criticism by "balancing" their syllabuses with opposing viewpoints, even if they represent inferior scholarship. They are less willing to discuss contemporary problems and I think everyone loses out," said Joe Losco, a professor of politic al science at Ball State University in Indiana who has supported two col leagues targeted for alleged bias. was accused of anti-Americanism in his peace studies course. A recent study by Santa Clara University researcher Daniel Klein estimate d that among social science and humanities faculty members nationwide, D emocrats outnumber Republicans by at least seven to one; And in the last election, the two employers w hose workers contributed the most to Sen. John Kerry's presidential camp aign were the University of California system and Harvard University. Many teachers insist personal politics don't affect teaching. But in a re cent survey of students at 50 top schools by the American Council of Tru stees and Alumni, a group that has argued there is too little intellectu al diversity on campuses, 49 percent reported at least some professors f requently commented on politics in class even if it was outside the subj ect matter. Thirty-one percent said they felt there were some courses in which they n eeded to agree with a professor's political or social views to get a goo d grade. Leading the movement is the group Students for Academic Freedom, with cha pters on 135 campuses and close ties to David Horowitz, a one-time liber al campus activist turned conservative commentator. The group posts stud ent complaints on its Web site about alleged episodes of grading bias an d unbalanced, anti-American propaganda by professors -- often in classes , such as literature, in which it's off-topic. Instructors "need to make students aware of the spectrum of scholarly opi nion," Horowitz said. "You can't get a good education if you're only get ting half the story." Conservatives claim they are discouraged from expressing their views in c lass, and are even blackballed from graduate school slots and jobs. "I feel like (faculty) are so disconnected from students that they do the se things and they can just get away with them," said Kris Wampler, who recently publicly identified himself as one of the students who sued the University of North Carolina. Now a junior, he objected when all incomi ng students were assigned to read a book about the Quran before they got to campus. "A lot of students feel like they're being discriminated against," he sai d Divergent opinions So far, his and other efforts are having mixed results. At UNC, the stude nts lost their legal case, but the university no longer uses the word "r equired" in describing the reading program for incoming students (the pl aintiffs' main objection). In Colorado, conservatives withdrew a legislative proposal for an "academ ic bill of rights" backed by Horowitz, but only after state universities agreed to adopt its principles. At Ball State, the school's provost sided with Professor George Wolfe aft er a student published complaints about Wolfe's peace studies course, bu t 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. Administrators responde d this month by setting up a new committee to investigate students compl aints. In the wider debate, both sides cite the guidelines on academic freedom f irst set out in 1915 by the American Association of University Professor s The objecting students emphasize the portion calling on teachers to "set forth justly ... But man y teachers note the guidelines also say instructors need not "hide (thei r) own opinions under a mountain of equivocal verbiage," and that their job is teaching students "to think for themselves." Horowitz believes the AAUP, which opposes his bill of rights, and liberal s in general are now the establishment and have abandoned their commitme nt to real diversity and student rights. But critics say Horowitz is pushing a political agenda, not an academic o ne. "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. They insist even most liberal professors give fair g rades to conservative students who work hard and support their arguments . At Ball State, senior Brett Mock published a detailed account accusing Wolfe of anti-Americani sm in a peace studies class and of refusing to tolerate the view that th e US invasion of Iraq might have been justified. In a telephone interv iew, Wolfe vigorously disputed Mock's allegations. He provided copies of a letter of support from other students in the class, and from the prov ost saying she had found nothing wrong with the course. Horowitz, who has also criticized Ball State's program, had little sympat hy when asked if Wolfe deserved to get hate e-mails from strangers.
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