Posted on 03/23/2005 10:24:35 AM PST by KeyesPlease
Don't look now, but it appears that the teaching of economics is becoming illegal on the campuses of America.
That is the only logical conclusion one can reach after studying the treatment of Harvard president Lawrence Summers and his fellow economist, University of Nevada- Las Vegas professor Hans-Herman Hoppe.
Summers was recently condemned by a majority vote of the Harvard faculty for raising questions about gender differences that apparently cannot be raised on campus today. But the Hoppe case offers a better illustration of the parlous nature of academic freedom in America
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
That turned out to be the case. A university hearing board docked Hoppe a week's pay and told him that he'd better not be caught again creating a "hostile learning environment."
Scary.
Last month, the university president issued a letter affirming the right of a professor to "espouse opinions that are out of the mainstream or controversial."
Learning economics is controversial? Very scary.
"Hoppe fought back. "The university should apologize," he said in an interview with the Chronicle of Higher Education. "They must uphold academic freedom, which permits and even obliges faculty to discuss controversial matters at variance with 'common wisdom.'"
The university administration finally backed down, but it took a year and a threat of a lawsuit to achieve that aim. Last month, the university president issued a letter affirming the right of a professor to "espouse opinions that are out of the mainstream or controversial."
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"That strategy was a total failure," said Harvey Mansfield, a professor of government at Harvard who was one of the few faculty members to defend Summers' freedom of speech. "I think that his retreating, his self-abasement produced this result." The result, a 218-185 vote of no confidence in Summers, shows that his fellow faculty members have lost interest in the concept of academic freedom, Mansfield said.
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Hoppe fought back and won. If Summers had told his critics to go fish this would have been over in a few days, instead he groveled and is now getting reamed. It ain't rocket science, people. You defer to bullies and you guarantee your fate. Mr. Summers should have studied his history.
Fact and reason are not the Liberals' friends.
This is nothing new. Years ago, Ted Schultz, the Nobel Prize winning economist had to endure the same thing at Iowa State.
http://chronicle.uchicago.edu/980305/schultz.shtml
so much for the necessity of tenure.
"Harvard? Who cares?"
If you think it's just Harvard, you aren't paying attention. It is ubiquitous on campuses throughout the US. Further Harvard graduates future leaders of this country. Don't forget that Summers is a Democrat and a Clinton appointee. If he can't get by what do you think happens to real Conservatives? Campuses are falling over the edge left. Ward Churchill is not at Harvard. Nor is he unique.
Nope, didn't think it was just Harvard.
Swill is pervasive in colleges.
However, IMHO, it is better now than it was 10 years ago.
There is real push back by conservative students.
And the new media is shining a light on the bias of the "big name" institutions.
So Re harvard, the best thing that could happen to them is more of the same. They will die from within.
Mike
I hope you are correct since the situation on campuses is frightening. It sits like a fifth column in our midsts.
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