Posted on 10/31/2003 5:09:05 AM PST by Arrowhead1952
The Young Conservatives of Texas target professors over ideology
By Sharon Jayson
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, October 31, 2003
A University of Texas student group has put the names of 10 faculty members on a watch list designed to warn students about professors that the group thinks push a political agenda in their classrooms.
UT's chapter of the Young Conservatives of Texas created its Professor Watchlist in time for spring registration, which began this week and continues through Nov. 7. The group distributed the list Thursday at a West Mall table. The list also is posted on the group's Web site.
"It's not a blacklist. It's a watch list," said Austin Kinghorn, a senior government major who is chairman of the UT chapter. "This gives students a little bit more control in their education to help understand what ideology a professor is pushing before they go to class."
UT students rely on various sources to choose teachers, from official teacher evaluations to the more informal "slam tables" on campus, to national Web sites. Those methods offer such opinions as how boring or interesting a professor's lectures are or how difficult tests are.
The Young Conservatives say their list is the only one of its kind at UT. It is similar to one on a national site called NoIndoctrination.org, which offers faculty evaluations based on perceived political biases.
UT's academic freedom policy, adopted 30 years ago, allows a faculty member "freedom to explore ideas on their merits" while cautioning that a professor should "avoid giving undue weight to his own political or moral judgements."
"The magic word there is 'undue,' " said UT President Larry Faulkner. "That's going to be some extent in the eye of the beholder."
Faulkner said the Young Conservatives have the "right to make the list and make the declaration."
Some of the group's 50 or so members provided information based on class visits or classes in which they were enrolled. Kinghorn asked for nominations via the Web site, including details on the teacher, department, specific classes and examples of bias.
The Web site also lists some faculty members on an "honor roll" for their perceived neutrality. The first three are government professors Bruce Buchanan, J. Budziszewski and Rhonda Evans-Case.
The watch list blasts Bob Jensen, a vocal anti-war activist who teaches courses in media law, ethics and politics, saying he introduces students "to a crash course in socialism, white privilege, the 'truth' about the Persian Gulf War and the role of America as the world's prominent sponsor of terrorism."
Jensen said he's not surprised. He describes his political philosophy as left-progressive.
"There are students who thank me for bringing up these issues and being straightforward," he said. "I have also had complaints and comments from those who think I'm pushing a certain political agenda in class."
Comments about government professor David Edwards say he "teaches one side of the story."
Edwards, who has taught at UT for 39 years, said the critique is "selective perception."
"It is true that most of the examples I use are from the Bush administration because that is the current administration," he said. "Any attentive student may have heard criticisms of the Clinton administration, as they may have heard about the Bush administration."
Most of the faculty members were chosen for perceived liberal bias, but Kinghorn said the list is nonpartisan. He described economics professor Stephen Bronars as "economically conservative."
"The group decided to do this because the majority of professors who push an agenda are liberal," he said. "That's not to say there aren't conservative professors out there doing the same thing."
Accusations of a liberal bias in higher education have been around for decades. Mary Burgan, general secretary of the American Association of University Professors, said that perception is more myth than reality.
"To get a picture of a whole university, you have to see what people in the business school and in the sciences and in physical education do," she said. "If you take the whole view, you would find a great variety of political beliefs on any university or college campus."
Accusations of a liberal bias in higher education have been around for decades. Mary Burgan, general secretary of the American Association of University Professors, said that perception is more myth than reality.
My take on the liberal left is that they wouldn't recognize the truth if it hit them in the face. They cannot accept facts of any nature.
Between the left leaning media and liberal profesors, kids going to college must learn family values at home.
I know a little about J. Budziszewski. He writes frequently for James Dobson's Focus on the Family. I'm not exactly sure you could qualify him as "neutral." Rather, his bias is exactly the same as mine: Christian and conservative.
The half-baked synthesis of Marxist and Freudian nonsense that forms the theoretical landscape of much higher education in America is quite convaluted and just about unreadable. The secular humanist leftist gurus wasting students' time (and money)on this absurd nonsense should be jailed and fined for child abuse.
This should be an issue in presidential elections. Government aid to colleges should be cut off wherever a majority of the professors espouse anti-Christian bigotry, leftist, and secular humanist bias.
Sen. Joseph McCarthy must be dancing in his grave. A group of University of Texas students, ignorant of history, have created a watch list of liberal professors (Oct. 31 article, "Group's ideology watch list singles out 10 UT professors"). It is a shame the list was created. It is a bigger shame that more faculty members aren't on it.
JERRY W. SHEPPERD
Manor
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