Web site stirs up criticism [Jihad Jane of NC Wesleyan]

Rocky Mount [N.C.] Telegram ^ | April 23, 2005 | Natalie Jordan

[Constitution Day]

Web site stirs up criticism

By Natalie Jordan, Rocky Mount Telegram

Saturday, April 23, 2005

The Web site of an N.C. Wesleyan College professor has drawn fire from bloggers, columnists and other Internet surfers regarding its content.

Jane Christensen, an associate professor of political science at the college, has a home page on the college's Web site that displays links to anti-war groups, alternative ideas about the Sept. 11 attacks, political action networks and pictures of masked people carrying weapons. The site also has links to her syllabi that give full descriptions of the classes she teaches.

The site states its content is protected under the First Amendment of the Constitution. But that hasn't stopped criticism from conservative columnists Jon Sanders, a policy analyst at the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, and Mike Adams, who writes for Townhall.com.

Both men published columns on conservative Web sites about Christensen's Web page, which attracted complaints from bloggers and other users of the sites.

In response to Christensen's site, Adams wrote that "slander and anti-Semitism are permitted by a bigot posing as a scholar."

Bridget Skillman, a former Rocky Mount resident who now lives in Sacramento, Calif., said she's appalled at the site and its contents and thinks Christensen is trying to brainwash her students. She said regardless of Christensen's constitutional right to freedom of speech, her views aren't limited to the site.

"As disgusting and hate-filled as her speech is, she is free to spew it," Skillman said. "She is not teaching the students, but trying to indoctrinate them to her way of thinking ... I truly think Ms. Christensen crosses the line, and I feel sorry for any students who disagree with her and must sit through her ranting in class. She actually seems like she could be dangerous — just my opinion.

"Isn't education about facts and thinking? It's not supposed to be just the opinions of the professor."

Christensen said she did not want to comment for this story.

"9/11: The road to tyranny," one of the elective courses listed on Christensen's site, studies the events of Sept. 11 and how that day "shaped political future" through "eyewitness accounts and speculation." The course does not require textbooks, but uses alternative news media and Web links such as prisonplanet.com and Infowars.com. It also refers to films like Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" and Alex Jones' "9/11: The Road to Tyranny."

Tom Betts, chairman of N.C. Wesleyan's board of trustees, said he thinks the material on the Web site is offensive, but defended the professor's right to display it.

"I find what's on her Web site to be distasteful and despicable, and I disagree with everything on it. In the most polite of terms, it is disgraceful," Betts said. "However, this is America, and academic freedom and free speech is what sets us apart from the rest of the world. And I believe and hope most people will see this Web site for what it is — the opinions of a very, very far left person. And any sensible person would see this as a joke — a very bad joke.

"Everyone has an opinion, and hearing all sides and drawing one's own conclusions is what college is about. And the last thing we need to do is tell somebody how to think. That's why we have elections."

The Web page, called "Megalinks in Political Science," features a picture of black-clad people holding automatic weapons. Underneath the picture reads "Fighting the New World Order." Christensen's accolades — a bachelor's degree from Howard University, a master's degree from Virginia Tech and a doctorate from the State University of New York at Albany — are also listed, along with her contact information at N.C. Wesleyan.

The site also provides a list of upcoming course topics, such as health and the war on drugs.

Ian Newbould, the college's president, said he supports academic freedom.

"Faculty have a right to their views. Some are popular views and some are less popular views, but we can't answer for every item faculty has links to," Newbould said. "There are different opinions about events and politics, and we don't stifle freedom of opinion."

Newbould said the United States should uphold its constitutional right to free speech.

"I know there are several right-wing Web sites out there trying to create controversy, and it's the media that perpetuates the controversy," he said. "But we don't tell people what they are supposed to think. That's what people like Saddam Hussein do — tell people what to do and what to think.

"That's what makes America great, because that doesn't happen here."

[familyop]

"Ian Newbould, the college's president, said he supports academic freedom."

Of course he does. All who are in the racket that is paid for by that one little part of communist philosophy (immunity against being dismissed from a job for incompetence) agree with the irrelevant, doublespeak phrase, "academic freedom." So do those who are related to and are misdirecting funding to people in that racket.

But it's going to go away. We've had enough. Completely privatize all education except for education that is done within the military. Do it now, or lose. Let teachers of all kinds work for whatever levels of pay they really deserve.

[CriticalJ]

"The truth is, there is at least one Ward Churchill-type lunatic employed at most every university."

Should be ammended to:

The truth is, there is at least 10 Ward Churchill-type lunatic employed at most every university.

[TaxRelief]

Update:

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The classroom where North Carolina Wesleyan College's only political science professor is teaching a course titled "9-11; The Road to Tyranny" has become the latest battlefront in the ongoing campus culture war.

On Tuesday, the six students enrolled in the elective course taught by Jane T. Christensen were to attend the course's final session: "Police State USA (Where Do We Go From Here?)"

Christensen's course has conservatives raging against campuses loaded with unaccountable liberals. The president of N.C. Wesleyan, a school of 1,800 students 50 miles east of Raleigh in Rocky Mount, is defending her right to academic freedom.

"Slander and anti-Semitism are permitted by a bigot posing as a scholar," Mike Adams, a criminal justice professor at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, wrote in an online critique on Frontpagemag.com.

Adams is a frequent critic of academic liberalism; Frontpagemag.com is a Web site headed by David Horowitz, a one-time liberal campus activist turned conservative critic.

One text required in Christensen's 9/11 course holds that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States were orchestrated and carried out by U.S. government elites. The course teaches that the official story about Sept. 11 is the result of "government involvement in the coverup."

The attacks were used by neo-conservatives in the Bush administration, acting on behalf of pro-Israel Zionists, as "a catalyst for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as the attack on civil liberties in the United States," according to the course's syllabus.

"I teach the truth about 9/11 in all of my courses," said Christensen, who also teaches classes on research methods and the American political system.

Other professors have encountered criticism for voicing alternative views of the Sept. 11 attacks. University of Colorado ethnic studies professor Ward Churchill came under scrutiny after writing that workers in the World Trade Center were the equivalent of "little Eichmanns," a reference to Adolf Eichmann, who ensured the smooth running of the Nazi system. Churchill said his essay referred to "technocrats" who participate in what he calls repressive American policies around the world. Churchill also spoke of the "gallant sacrifices" of the "combat teams" that struck America.

And North Carolina has seen battles over the academic community's response to Sept. 11, as when three incoming freshmen sued the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill over a summer reading assignment of a book that examined Muslim beliefs.

In an interview Monday with The Associated Press, Christensen -- a tenured professor with 15 years at N.C. Wesleyan -- defended her course.

"This is a war by the extreme right wing motivated by the Zionists to quash academic freedom on campus," she said.

Students will "never find anything that resembles the truth about 9/11 or the war in Iraq from the mainstream media," she added.

Christensen urged an interviewer to investigate how many Iraqis have been killed since the U.S. invasion two years ago, whether several of the suicide hijackers on 9/11 have since been spotted alive, and whether Israel is planning targeted killings of opponents in the United States.

"That's a hell of a lot more interesting than my (expletive) Web site," she said.

Christensen's page on the N.C. Wesleyan Web site shows a photo of black-clad people holding automatic weapons and the statement: "Fighting the New World Order."

The site includes links to founding documents of American democracy -- like the Declaration of Independence and selected Federalist Papers -- as well as to anti-war, anti-Bush, anti-Israel and pro-Palestine groups.

Ian Newbould, N.C. Wesleyan's president, defended Christensen in an interview.

"We don't tell professors what to think. We don't tell professors what to teach. The Eastern European Communist regimes, or Saddam Hussein for that matter, that's what they did," Newbould said Monday. "What makes America great is we don't do that. I've often used a quotation that they say comes from Voltaire, `I may disagree with what you say but I'll fight to your death your right to say it.' "

A year ago, Newbould participated in a panel discussion at a convention of independent college administrators about whether college presidents should express personal opinions on controversial national issues. He said presidents should stay in the background, while providing opportunities for campus discussion.

N.C. Wesleyan is a liberal arts college affiliated with the United Methodists.

Newbould said Monday the school is considering applicants for a second political science professorship -- a hiring decision he said is independent of any controversy over Christensen.

http://www.news14charlotte.com/content/top_stories/default.asp?ArID=92197

[rlmorel]

No..you aren't doing it right. The correct phrase is:

"I never did!"

[TaxRelief]

Update in Post #23; This story, about the lone professor in the Political Science department at Wesleyan, is making it into the Mainstream.

Mike Adams and the Pope Center both get positive mentions.

From the article:

One text required in Christensen's 9/11 course holds that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States were orchestrated and carried out by U.S. government elites. The course teaches that the official story about Sept. 11 is the result of "government involvement in the coverup."

The attacks were used by neo-conservatives in the Bush administration, acting on behalf of pro-Israel Zionists, as "a catalyst for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as the attack on civil liberties in the United States," according to the course's syllabus.

"I teach the truth about 9/11 in all of my courses," said Christensen, who also teaches classes on research methods and the American political system.

NC *Ping*

Please FRmail Constitution Day, Alia OR TaxRelief if you want to be added to or removed from this North Carolina ping list.

[bamahead]

Thanks for the ping.

"But we don't tell people what they are supposed to think. That's what people like Saddam Hussein do — tell people what to do and what to think. That's what makes America great, because that doesn't happen here." \

But isn't that EXACTLY what this so called "professor" attempts to do every day from her "scholar's pulpit"??? What an idiot...

[wimpycat]

Mr. Newbould doesn't tell the Alumni where to spend their money, either. *snicker*

I've often used a quotation that they say comes from Voltaire,`I may disagree with what you say but I'll fight to your death your right to say it.' "

Did he quote Voltaire accurately, or is that a Freudian slip?

[wimpycat]

Mr. Newbould doesn't tell the Alumni where to spend their money, either. *snicker*

I've often used a quotation that they say comes from Voltaire,`I may disagree with what you say but I'll fight to your death your right to say it.' "

Did he quote Voltaire accurately, or is that a Freudian slip?

[spacewarp]

There's a problem with your solution. As a student at NC Wesleyan, I can tell you that the school IS private. At about $700/class, it's an expensive lesson for me to teach myself about wasting my opportunities as a youth.

I'm highly disappointed that the teacher is pushing such drek. She's in her right, and the school has only to answer to their board and students.

Paul

[familyop]

Thank you for the reply and information, Paul. After a thought, it doesn't surprise me that a private school is towing the line of the left, really. Have a look at this.

The following filed briefs in favor of "affirmative
action" in the Michigan "Grutter v. Bollinger"
(Michigan University) case. Be sure to save the
list of corporations below for later reference. Socialism and its prerequisite social movements are a disease, indeed.

From:

http://www.umich.edu/~urel/admissions/legal/gru_amicus/32_internatl.pdf

American Bar Association

American Council on Education, et. al.

Civil Rights Project of Harvard University

Clinical Legal Education Association

Fortune 500 Corporations that filed briefs in favor
of "affirmative action" for Michigan University

3M
Abbott Laboratories
American Airlines
Ashland
Bank One
Boeing
Coca-Cola
Dow Chemical
E.I. Du Pont De Nemours
Eastman Kodak
Eli Lilly
Ernst & Young
Exelon
Fannie Mae
General Dynamics
General Mills
Intel
Johnson & Johnson
Kellogg
KPMG
Lucent Technologies
Microsoft
Mitsubishi
Nationwide Mutual Insurance
Nationwide Financial
Pfizer
PPG
Proctor & Gamble
Sara Lee
Steelcase
Texaco
TRW
United Airlines

General Motors Corporation

Law Deans of Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, New York and Yale University, and
University of Pennsylvania

Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights under Law

Michigan Attorney General

Michigan Public Officials

National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, et. al.

NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund

Ohio State University

Thirty-six Faculty Members of The Ohio State University College of Law

UAW (International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers