Posted on 03/03/2006 2:08:34 PM PST by dukeman
THE MOST leftist-dominated institution in American life today is our system of higher education.
Studies have shown that liberal faculty members outnumber conservatives in some disciplines by 30 to 1. At colleges and universities all over the country, the watchwords are "tolerance" and "diversity" - which, in the university world, means a community where everyone looks different but thinks alike.
By now, the evidence of leftist dominance is so overwhelming that no one can credibly dispute it. But does that dominance really present a problem? Not to the left (of course). They would argue that their universities are havens of free speech, outposts of dissent in a conformist world and hallowed places where students learn to "question authority" and "speak truth to power."
In fact, the opposite is true.
Virtually immune from oversight and invested with enormous power and financial resources, the campus left has all too often created institutions that suppress free speech, punish critics and sometimes even actively undermine U.S. foreign policy and military efforts abroad.
Sometimes, the furor over national issues makes it easy to lose sight of the effect campus policies and actions have on real people all around us. Even outrageous statistics - like the fact that 70 percent of America's top schools enforce unconstitutional speech codes - fail to stir much concern.
The Pennsylvania state legislature recently learned that its public universities suppress student freedom at an even higher rate than that national average. The politicians, like many voters, simply shrugged. Maybe they won't shrug at Christian DeJohn.
Christian is a sergeant in the Pennsylvania National Guard and a graduate student at Temple University. Since 9/11, he's been deployed overseas three times, serving in Germany, Egypt and Bosnia. While he has not faced service in Iraq, Christian has served his country in hazardous circumstances. Bosnia is still a hostile fire zone, and soldiers deployed there take risks every day. When Christian left Philadelphia to serve in Bosnia, he requested a military leave of absence from Temple, but he still tried to continue his studies. He took a correspondence course from a distinguished retired officer, and he kept up with his university department via e-mail.
While overseas, Christian received several invitations to sit-ins and other anti-war activities. These e-mails were written by a professor using publicly funded resources to advance his own personal political agenda. Christian objected.
Though he never disputed the professor's rights to free speech, he expressed concern that such messages were being sent to a soldier deployed in a hostile-fire zone. He also asked what Temple was doing to support its students serving overseas.
The professor never responded to Christian, and the e-mails stopped. But when he returned from Bosnia, Christian discovered that he had been expelled. He challenged the expulsion. Temple claimed "computer error" and re-admitted him. But worse - much worse - was in store.
To receive his master's degree, Christian had to write a thesis and receive the approval of a "primary" and a "secondary" reader. His primary reader approved his thesis - hardly a surprise since Christian is an accomplished writer who has been published in nationally prominent newspapers and historical journals. (In fact, he has more publications than many Temple faculty members.) In a recent federal job application, he was rated first out of more than 60 applicants. But his "secondary" reader was a professor whose political beliefs are opposed to Christian's.
This secondary reader not only flunked Christian, but made it a point to describe his work in insulting terms. Among other things, it was called a "hissy fit in print" that read like a "comic book for five-year-olds."
Then, just for good measure, it was reported - falsely - that Christian was delinquent on his student loans.
Christian is used to fighting authoritarian foes. He left Temple to defend the liberty of Bosnians, never imagining that his own freedom would be threatened at home. He continues his battle for liberty on his own campus, in his own state - filing a lawsuit against the university, seeking the justice and fairness that's been denied him. He figures free speech shouldn't be too much to ask for on an American college campus.
After all, in a Temple, some things should be sacred.
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David French is a senior legal counsel of the Alliance Defense Fund (www.telladf.org) and director of its Center for Academic Freedom. The Alliance Defense Fund is representing Christian DeJohn in federal court.
I hope to read a follow-up article someday.
The Academic Bill Of Rights needs to be rammed down the throats of every single college, university, and institute of learning in the United States.
http://www.studentsforacademicfreedom.org/abor.html
"5. Exposing students to the spectrum of significant scholarly viewpoints on the subjects examined in their courses is a major responsibility of faculty. Faculty will not use their courses for the purpose of political, ideological, religious or anti-religious indoctrination."
And, of course:
"3. Students will be graded solely on the basis of their reasoned answers and appropriate knowledge of the subjects and disciplines they study, not on the basis of their political or religious beliefs."
I hope that we're seeing the first tiny cracks in the liberal dominence in academia. Professors like Mike Adams, students like Christian DeJohn and Sean Allen, the emergence of fledgling conservative student organizations on campuses across the country--all are signs of hope.
Why doesn't condolesa, as Secretary of State, order an investigation into who gave the visa..... to the taliban leader... arrest him ..... then deport him... somebody had to help him get into this country.... MAYBE A LITTLE BIT OF CONSPIRACT TO HELP A TERRORIST INTO THIS COUNTRY AND TO ALLOW HIM TO SPEAK OUT AGINST OUR COUNTRY.
CONDI.... LET'S HEAR FROM YOU ON THIS.... BUSH TOO....
I am an alumna of Temple University. I plan to contact Temple on Monday.
Christian De John,
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The liberals ( really Marxists-lite) probably hate his Christian name.
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