A Smoking Gun at Columbia University: A new saga in the assault on academic freedom unravels

VDH Private Papers ^ | August 11, 2004 | Bruce Thornton

[quidnunc]

If you've ever wondered how American universities can continue to allow political advocacy and indoctrination to flourish in their classrooms, consider the recent controversy over Columbia University's department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures (MEALAC). In a documentary called Columbia Unbecoming, 14 Columbia students describe what they considered expressions of anti-Israel bias and intimidation in some MEALAC department courses. In response, Columbia's President Lee Bollinger last winter appointed a faculty committee to investigate the matter. This was the second committee the president appointed, the students and others having rejected the first committee's obvious attempt to brush aside the charges.

As reported recently in the New York Times, this new committee found no proof of anti-Semitism, but did "describe a broader environment of incivility on campus, with pro-Israel students disrupting lectures on Middle Eastern studies and some faculty members feeling that they were being spied on." In other words, not only are the professors in MEALAC doing nothing wrong, they are in fact the real victims. This interpretation harmonizes with the left's take on the whole issue, which is that the complaint is really just another right-wing, McCarthyite assault on academic freedom. I suppose that's why the New York Civil Liberties Union weighed in on the side of the professors, going so far as to assert that students have no academic freedom in the classroom, unless the professor deigns to bestow it upon them — another example of how the civil liberties lobby considers some people more equal than others when it comes to freedom.

-snip-

[stripes1776]

"I am delighted to take on the challenge of this job," Professor Howard said. "Educational excellence and social justice are intimately connected, and the goal of building a more inclusive and diverse university is one to which I am deeply committed. This means, of course, not only changing the demographics of the University, but also its ways of creating knowledge so that, for example, scholarship on race, sexuality, gender, ethnicity and religious difference is put at the center rather than at the margins of our intellectual endeavors."

"...its ways of creating knowledge." I have very little respect for academia these days. Just make your knowledge up to suite your leftist politics, and that is what truth is. Pathetic.

[spinestein]

[the New York Civil Liberties Union weighed in on the side of the professors, going so far as to assert that students have no academic freedom in the classroom, unless the professor deigns to bestow it upon them]


Of course, academic freedom is only for the teachers and willingness to embrace new ideas is only for the students.

[spinestein]

[...ways of creating knowledge...]




The scientific training I've embraced and nurtured over the years is now causing me to involuntarily gag.

[weegee]

McCarthyism existed before Senator Joe came to the forefront.

The Crucible was not written about McCarthy, it came into being from the earlier hunt for communists in government, institutions, and industry. And just as the kids in The Crucible WERE practicing witchcraft (whether or not their spells did any harm), communists HAD infiltrated our highest offices.

The left's own "McCarthyism" needs a name. Zogbyism works for me. Maybe some other term would be preferred. McCarthy was right about Communism while Zogby was wrong about Kerry winning in 2004.

The left demonizes their enemies (they ceaselessly go after whoever the "top" Republican is) with trumped up charges, hoaxed documents, and fraudulent "news" items. They share much propaganda technique with Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, Communist China, North Vietnam, Castro's Cuba, and North Korea.

They've found that the best defense is a good offense. Call their enemies on the right "fascists" to mask their own despoptism. Our policy in Iraq (and discussed plans before putting it into action) are "fascist" only because of the (R) behind the president's name. When Bill Clinton and John Kerry were huffing and puffing in 1997, there was no outcry from the left.

[Paleo Conservative]

Ping!

[henderson field]

"The left demonizes its enemies..."
Good example: Barry Goldwater.
Before the election everyone was told he would start a nuclear war if elected.

[weegee]

I knew that there was some reason why Hillary supported him in 64. Guess she figured that she could rise to the top in a post-apocalyptic world.