By JUSTIN POPE, AP Education Writer

 

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.

 

 

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, those same guidelines are being invoked by conservative students who support the war in Iraq (news - web sites).

 

 

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.

 

 

Those behind the trend call it an antidote to the overwhelming liberal dominance of university faculties. But many educators, while agreeing students should never feel bullied, worry that they just want to avoid exposure to ideas that challenge their core beliefs an essential part of education.

 

 

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.

 

 

"Faculty retrench. They are less willing to discuss contemporary problems and I think everyone loses out," said Joe Losco, a professor of political science at Ball State University in Indiana who has supported two colleagues targeted for alleged bias. "It puts a chill in the air."

 

 

Conservatives say a chill is in order.

 

 

A recent study by Santa Clara University researcher Daniel Klein estimated that among social science and humanities faculty members nationwide, Democrats outnumber Republicans by at least seven to one; in some fields it's as high as 30 to one. And in the last election, the two employers whose workers contributed the most to Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites)'s presidential campaign were the University of California system and Harvard University.

 

 

Many teachers insist personal politics don't affect teaching. But in a recent survey of students at 50 top schools by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a group that has argued there is too little intellectual diversity on campuses, 49 percent reported at least some professors frequently commented on politics in class even if it was outside the subject matter.

 

 

Thirty-one percent said they felt there were some courses in which they needed to agree with a professor's political or social views to get a good grade.

 

 

Leading the movement is the group Students for Academic Freedom, with chapters on 135 campuses and close ties to David Horowitz, a one-time liberal campus activist turned conservative commentator. The group posts student complaints on its Web site about alleged episodes of grading bias and 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 opinion," Horowitz said. "You can't get a good education if you're only getting half the story."

 

Conservatives claim they are discouraged from expressing their views in class, and are even blackballed from graduate school slots and jobs.

 

"I feel like (faculty) are so disconnected from students that they do these 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 incoming 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 said.

 

So far, his and other efforts are having mixed results. At UNC, the students lost their legal case, but the university no longer uses the word "required" in describing the reading program for incoming students (the plaintiffs' main objection).

 

In Colorado, conservatives withdrew a legislative proposal for an "academic 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 after a student published complaints about Wolfe's peace studies course, but 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.

 

At Columbia, anguished debate followed the screening of a film by an advocacy group called The David Project that alleges some faculty violate students' rights by using the classroom as a platform for anti-Israeli political propaganda (one Israeli student claims a professor taunted him by asking, "How many Palestinians did you kill?"). Administrators responded this month by setting up a new committee to investigate students complaints.

 

In the wider debate, both sides cite the guidelines on academic freedom first set out in 1915 by the American Association of University Professors.

 

The objecting students emphasize the portion calling on teachers to "set forth justly ... the divergent opinions of other investigators." But many teachers note the guidelines also say instructors need not "hide (their) 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 liberals in general are now the establishment and have abandoned their commitment to real diversity and student rights.

 

But critics say Horowitz is pushing a political agenda, not an academic one.

 

"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. "What they're saying is, 'We want people to reflect our point of view.'"

 

Horowitz's critics also insist his campaign is getting more attention than it deserves, riling conservative bloggers but attracting little alarm from most students. They insist even most liberal professors give fair grades to conservative students who work hard and support their arguments.

 

Often, the facts of particular cases are disputed. At Ball State, senior Brett Mock published a detailed account accusing Wolfe of anti-Americanism in a peace studies class and of refusing to tolerate the view that the U.S. invasion of Iraq might have been justified. In a telephone interview, Wolfe vigorously disputed Mock's allegations. He provided copies of a letter of support from other students in the class, and from the provost saying she had found nothing wrong with the course.

 

Horowitz, who has also criticized Ball State's program, had little sympathy when asked if Wolfe deserved to get hate e-mails from strangers.

 

"These people are such sissies," he said. "I get hate mail every single day. What can I do about it? It's called the Internet."

 

 

 

 

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/a...cademic_freedom

That is uncalled for. Both sides are full of it.

 

Profs should be teaching, not indoctrinating and students should be learning, not entrapping professors.

Wait a minute...there are still people that support the invasion???

 

That's news to me.

 

I guess they haven't read a newspaper or watched the news in oh, 2 years now.

That is uncalled for. Both sides are full of it.

 

Profs should be teaching, not indoctrinating and students should be learning, not entrapping professors.

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Unfortunately, I must agree. I'm glad my comparative politics teacher wasn't some uber-liberal type of lady who'd come in with an anti-Bush anti-US diatribe on a daily basis. Objectivity rules.

A few words say it all:

 

Conservatives say a chill is in order.

 

But critics say Horowitz is pushing a political agenda, not an academic one.

 

But many teachers note the guidelines also say instructors need not "hide (their) own opinions under a mountain of equivocal verbiage," and that their job is teaching students "to think for themselves."

 

Here are the big differences. Are conservatives getting punished for expressing their views in college the way liberals were in the 60s? No. College is not high school though for some idiots it might be. College is a forum of ideas and that includes professors. Professors should not include all left wing reading but what the Horowitz nutballs are getting mad over are objective texts that people are open to interepret. The mere reading of the Quran is now left wing bias? Has legacy not read the Quran? Has cfdodgemarlin not read it? Why cant people just read it and then form their own opinion? The key is that the texts dont activley support their agenda which is precisley why Horowitz is involved.

 

What a crock of crap. Did I complain when the economics I was taught was primarily supportive of trickle down and supply side? Did I complain when econ profs said government spending and Keynsian economics were wrong? Did I complain when the History of Jesus prof I had was a priest? Did I complain when by Russian lit prof effectivley taught that Borthers K and Anna K were written to defend Christianity to an extent over academic ambiguitity? Oh come on people. Learn to use your brain.

 

 

Any prof that is teaching left wing propoganda is wrong. But thats not what people are mad about. They are mad about some stupid implicit liberal bias in objective texts that dont teach a right wing agenda.

Are conservatives getting punished for expressing their views in college the way liberals were in the 60s? No.

 

The day the conservatives decide to stage violent demonstrations, take over admin buildings, do bombings, etc I expect their punishment status will change.

 

Do you feel the leftists of the 60's should have been allowed to run amok bombing, burning, taking over without restraints?

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Do I sense a patented tonyi pointless change of topic coming?

 

 

Try and wrap that conservative mind of yours around the concept of a justified end being different from a justified means. Right, Im sure it was the methods taken and not the views themselves that bothered the old guard. Keep drinking your obsessivley favorite drink of cherry kool aid.

First off, what's going on at Columbia doesn't surprise me. I've heard about it for a while, starting with the bullying tactics of the MEALAC department. Speaking of which, does anyone know where I can find a copy of "Unbecoming Columbia"? I hear it's pretty damning (and IMO, it has nothing to do with right/left, but more to do with MEALAC's bullying).

 

That said, most conservatives are full of it. Sure, my polisci prof made Bush jokes during lecture, but that's the extent to which her bias went.

It's fine to make fun of Bush, or even oppose his policies openly to a class, but a couple of professors in the country give essays like "How Bush is a War Criminal" and fail students who don't attack Bush. This very slim amount of anti-free opinion should be fired.

It's fine to make fun of Bush, or even oppose his policies openly to a class, but a couple of professors in the country give essays like "How Bush is a War Criminal" and fail students who don't attack Bush. This very slim amount of anti-free opinion should be fired.

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Where in that article did it say the students were being failed?

 

 

 

And second of all, I have never heard of any teacher, no matter how much they hated Bush, assigning an essay on how Bush is a war criminal. Stop living in your dream world of Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh.

 

 

 

Oh speaking of Ann Coulter, I decided to look at her website yesterday and read something made out to the people of Islam.

 

It Read:

 

Just think: If we'd invaded your countries, killed your leaders and converted you to Christianity YOU'D ALL BE OPENING CHRISTMAS PRESENTS RIGHT ABOUT NOW!

 

 

Absolutely disgusting.

It's fine to make fun of Bush, or even oppose his policies openly to a class, but a couple of professors in the country give essays like "How Bush is a War Criminal" and fail students who don't attack Bush. This very slim amount of anti-free opinion should be fired.

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You dont have a shred of foundation to base that one.

 

I guess now its ok to make silly claims up. Its wrong for conservatives to eat liberals! They do it all the time!

Try and wrap that conservative mind of yours around the concept of a justified end being different from a justified means. Right, Im sure it was the methods taken and not the views themselves that bothered the old guard. Keep drinking your obsessivley favorite drink of cherry kool aid.

 

Views are protected by the 1st amendment, criminal behavior isn't.

 

You deftly avoided my question, so I'll repeat it.

 

Do you feel the leftists of the 60's should have been allowed to run amok bombing, burning, taking over without restraints?

 

This country has an architected procedure for those who want to change things. Its implemented in the voting booth, not an SDS bomb factory or Weather Underground hideout.

 

Of course there's real problem for moonbats if they can't win at the polls and find their "views" don't resonate with the public. Unless they're willing to contribute as the loyal opposition, all they're left with is force to attain their goals.

 

So I ask again, do you feel the violence of the left in the 60's was OK because they couldn't win at the polls?

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No, I dont support such tactics.

 

But Im glad you agree with me. You said it yourself:

 

This country has an architected procedure for those who want to change things. Its implemented in the voting booth, not an SDS bomb factory or Weather Underground hideout.

 

Freeze tactics are oppresive tactics also. Since you say such tactics are improper and the voting booth should be used, Im sure youll agree they are using impriper tactics.

 

Im glad you think these conservatives and Horowitz are moonbats too. :thumbup

 

Good to see you pull the thread back on topic. :mischief

Staying on the topic at hand, no one can deny that there is an evident left wing bias among college professors. Now, does that bias affect their teaching in the classroom, and the answer is that sometimes it does and other times it doesnt. However, in my studies i have encountered four professors who have been biased to an ideology. One of them was conservative, and in lecture he would teach the books and thne make side comments that had a slight conservative slant, this was an anti-terrorism class. The worst professor I had was one that taught classes about the judicial system. In one class we had to argue in front of a mock supreme court. The case we were arguing was not real, it was a fabricated case that was to be created just for the class. The problem is that the students representing the 'liberal' argument were allowed to fabricate the case facts, in a way that the other side had nothing to argue with because all of the case facts were against them. not only that the fake case which involved airport security involved scenes that are not accurate descriptions of what happens in the US and would not even happen in cambodia. This liberal bias affected the class so much that the petitioners did not receive A's in the class b/c they were unable to defend the conservative viewpoint based on those facts. (by the way in this case i wrote an amicus curaie brief as the ACLU)

Staying on the topic at hand, no one can deny that there is an evident left wing bias among college professors. Now, does that bias affect their teaching in the classroom, and the answer is that sometimes it does and other times it doesnt. However, in my studies i have encountered four professors who have been biased to an ideology. One of them was conservative, and in lecture he would teach the books and thne make side comments that had a slight conservative slant, this was an anti-terrorism class. The worst professor I had was one that taught classes about the judicial system. In one class we had to argue in front of a mock supreme court. The case we were arguing was not real, it was a fabricated case that was to be created just for the class. The problem is that the students representing the 'liberal' argument were allowed to fabricate the case facts, in a way that the other side had nothing to argue with because all of the case facts were against them. not only that the fake case which involved airport security involved scenes that are not accurate descriptions of what happens in the US and would not even happen in cambodia. This liberal bias affected the class so much that the petitioners did not receive A's in the class b/c they were unable to defend the conservative viewpoint based on those facts. (by the way in this case i wrote an amicus curaie brief as the ACLU)

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Agreed that profs who make absent objective texts and assign one sided arguments are bad. But Ive never experiences anything of that sort(not saying it doesnt happen to either side). What Horowitz is upset with is having The Quran is required reading. Clearly trying to understanding historical documents and religious texts cant be considered bias. I took a history of religion class and was assigned the bible. It would be silly for me to argue that the bible is not relevant to history of religion. In addition, I dont think you can find too many econ profs in this country that would positivley spin more left leaning economic views like socialism.

 

People of one or another political viewpoint being concentrated in a field happens a lot. Prosecutors are mostly conservative.

 

Incidentally, the opposite happend to me. I tried out for the moot court appellate team and voluntarily decided to write for the side opposing a Colorado affirmitive action statute-I argued it was unconstiutional. I really got roughed up by the judge while my friend who was arguing for the other side wasn't asked a difficult question. Perhaps it was the bias or perhaps that judges will try and rough one side up some times and real life and we have to be prepared. In terms of your example, that sounds bad but Im sure thats the exception and not the rule.

how many of you have tried to be a consevative student in a college campus?

 

most conservative student groups are harrassed and given a hard time by the administration. professors give a hard time to conservative students in class. it is a nightmare to be an active conservative in a college campus.

how many of you have tried to be a consevative student in a college campus?

 

most conservative student groups are harrassed and given a hard time by the administration. professors give a hard time to conservative students in class. it is a nightmare to be an active conservative in a college campus.

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What school did/ do you go to? In FIU a few people including myself started a conservative group, which has had problem from the get-go. The body that provides funding has 'messed up' on our paperwork several times and denied us funding through the school. Our sister group in UMiami had a hard time getting started b/c their organizations council would not allow thme to come aboard. There fight for their 1st amendment rights reached national media and UM eventually intervened to let them form the group

i go to fiu. for five years i've been a member of the free cuba foundation. not exactly a conservative group, but the majority of us are conservatives and have very good relations with conservative groups. i think i know which group you are talking about in UM. I met the girls who started it at a leadership institute workshop in Daytona a while back.