[dilpo]

Out of several hundred faculty members at this super liberal school, even one conservative is one too many.

[VOA]

Because the reappointment letter was positive and because "what has happened since then
is that I basically came out of the closet as a conservative," he suspects
the tenure decision was based on his political beliefs.

Show your true conservative self to a committee of people who probably
worship at the feet of Garafolo, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Mike Farrell, and
the rest of their cabal?

This guy is too stupid to get tenure anywhere.

(no flames...I'm in academia and have done all I can to disguise the ugly truth...
I'm conservative and culturally a Christian. Heck, I catch enough crap because
of things I can't help, like being white and male.)

[VOA]

...this decision will decrease the little political diversity that exists
amongst the faculty at Smith College

Poor deluded children.
Where has anyone in academia promoted POLITICAL diversity?

Well, maybe at places like conservative Hillsdale College where they will
invite speakers from across the political spectrum.

Dennis Prager, conservative Jewish radio show host, spoke at Stanford U.
a few weeks ago.
The next day the college paper did at least quote a student who attended Prager's
lecture as saying that Prager's viewpoints were something you just didn't hear
at Stanford.

[jimkress]

Other economics professors argue that the department remains committed to academic freedom.

There's a spelling error here. What the 'other economics professors' argued was that the department remains committed to academic fiefdom.

[YoungKentuckyConservative]

It isn't really the issue. The problem is that the morons in this country continue to PAY LUMP SUMS to these lower-living instutions. That's the real issue. If people would get a freakin' clue and start sending their children to respectable institutions, as hard as they are to find, the problem would solve itself.

Unfortunately, with enough socialism and brain washing, people lose all logic and they don't realize that they are paying for nothing. Take taxes as a perfect example....

[cornelis]

They spared him the hemlock!

[NYC GOP Chick]

"In my 23 years of employment at Smith College, I have witnessed the College at large, and the Department of Economics in particular, go out of its way to protect the academic freedom of all members of the Smith community. In our department, specifically, we have always had an unusually wide range of opinions on both economic methodology and political issues. We have 'agreed to disagree' for as long as I have been here, and we are able to work together because of this mutual respect and tolerance," said Karen A. Pfiefer, professor of economics.

LOL! The professor -- who doesn't exactly hide her Marxist tendencies -- sure as hell was singing a different tune when she was originally denied tenure back in 1985 or '86.

I still remember when she just showed up in class and canceled it for the day, so that she could go off and pout somewhere. Yep, it was the afternoon right before a vacation and I missed an early ride home just to stay for that class.

[ex-Texan]

My son went to school just up the street from Smith College. It has a nice campus. The female students all looked like they were having doubts about their gender and were worried about sexual 'self-expression' when I was visiting.

I knew a girl who went to Smith back in the 1960's. She was a cute girl with a conservative family. When she returned from Smith that summer she looked shell shocked. Frankly, she was upset because of the hazing on campus. She was required to sleep with a student from Amherst in order to be admitted to the sorority she was pledging. That experience unnerved her, and changed her dramatically.

In peronal opinion Smith is a garbage dump where Democrats have dumped their pretty and very naive girls for at least the last 50 years. Teaches them to 'grow up' or go lesbian in about two years.

[Gritty]

Mr. Miller missed his big opportunity for tenure. What he should have done is lead a few anti-war demonstrations and call for the impeachment of President Bush for War Crimes.

He would have been a shoo-in and would be drinking champagne (French, of course!) this very night.

[The Westerner]

"If a professor doesn't make it possible for students to raise their views or to disagree with the professor or 'if his ideology so clouded his thinking that he wouldn't bring up counterexamples,' that would be problematic, said Rachel M. Balsham '05. But while Miller 'says a lot of things that are offensive - and I'm not even going to say that taken in context it is perfectly P.C., because it's not - he does so to invite debate, she said. 'I think that brings a lot to the class.'"

What on earth could he possibly say that is offensive? That he believes in Laissez-Faire Capitalism and doesn't believe in helping the poor with welfare state programs? And what does she mean "I'm not even going to say that taken in context it is perfectly P.C. because it's not"?

[NonValueAdded]

So much for diversity enriching the campus experience of the Smith girls.

[friendly]

This is a grotesque violation of James D. Miller's civil rights. Where is the ACLU? (/sarcasm seriously off)

[Motorcycle Cowboy]

And another one bites the dust...

And they say we have censorship issues?!

[Doctor Raoul]

Rush Limbaugh is absolutely correct when he says,....

Liberals Hate
Diversity of Opinion

[Ligeia]

Jun 19, 2003

Lesson Learned

This space often has pointed out that higher education's devotion to diversity is only skin-deep: Schools want faculty and students to look different but think alike. Recently Smith College reinforced that lesson for an assistant professor who has been denied tenure - in apparent part because he leans to the right.

In the past couple of years James Miller has, in his words, come "out of the closet as a conservative" by writing for National Review Online. His views irked at least one faculty member who voted against Miller. Wrote she:

I would also refer the committee to a piece included in Jim's "Journalistic Articles" packet: the Guest Comment on NRO entitled "Campus Colors," in which Jim says, among other things, that "professors are mostly left-wing," that "the large number of non-U.S. citizens in American colleges necessarily makes these schools less patriotic," and that "practically the only way for a women's-studies professor to get a lifetime college appointment is for her to contribute to the literature on why America is racist, sexist, and homophobic." I find it extremely disturbingly [sic] that this could be Jim's image of academia.

A Smith senior endorses some of Miller's views when he says, "It's hard to point to a single professor besides Jim Miller [who] is an active conservative voice in the economics department." Evidently some on the tenure committee think that view is mistaken, and want to prove it by purging an uncloseted moderate. A grievance committee at the school agreed Miller had been wronged. Still, any other Smith faculty conservatives want to say there aren't enough faculty conservatives?

RTD Editorial

Campus Colors And how to change them.
By James D. Miller, assistant professor of economics, Smith College