Posted on 01/19/2011 12:26:38 AM PST by Stand Watch Listen
This commentary was written by William B. Irvine, professor of philosophy at Wright State University.
You might remember that the Rev. Jeremiah Wright was President Barack Obama’s pastor before the relationship became politically inconvenient.
Although I disagree with many of Wright’s views, I welcome him to our campus. Universities should be a marketplaces of ideas. My colleagues, I think, share this belief. And, yet, in the last decade, Wright State has been curiously one-sided in the speakers it brings to campus.
Liberal speakers are routinely invited. We also invite speakers who can be characterized as ultra-liberal, including Wright, and, two years ago, Angela Davis.
But politically conservative speakers are scarce. It is true that John McCain and Sarah Palin appeared at Nutter Center, but they paid us for the privilege of using our facilities. In contrast, we pay people like Wright and Davis to come to our campus, and speakers of this caliber can command a five-figure fee.
On exploring this “speaker gap” with my colleagues, I was surprised by their response to my suggestion that Wright State should invite conservative speakers. “You mean someone like Glenn Beck?” they would reply.
Another reaction was that although they have nothing against inviting conservatives, they wouldn’t want any Holocaust deniers appearing on campus, the suggestion being that I would have a hard time finding a conservative who accepted the Holocaust as fact.
Many of my colleagues, I soon discovered, see no reason to expose the campus community to the political debate between conservatives and liberals. They are confident that the debate is over, with liberals having trounced conservatives.
My other discovery is that many of my colleagues assume that those who favor conservative viewpoints typically do so because they are stupid and quite possibly evil.
When I explained that I was suggesting that we bring to campus not Glenn Beck or a Holocaust denier, but articulate, intelligent conservative speakers, they sometimes chuckled in response, “Good luck with that!”
When I asked what they thought of individuals such as Thomas Sowell (a black conservative) or Andrew Sullivan (a gay conservative), it was clear that they are unacquainted with the writings of such individuals.
I was puzzled that my colleagues were not troubled by the dearth of conservative speakers — that on our campus we are unwilling or even unable to conduct a debate that for centuries has occupied some of the finest minds in Western civilization.
Then I hit on a theory: It is now possible, in American universities, to go through an entire education, right up through a doctorate, without ever encountering a flesh-and-blood conservative professor.
What you instead encounter are liberal professors galore, who will be happy to tell you what they imagine the conservative viewpoint on various issues must be and why these viewpoints are wrongheaded.
This is a pale substitute for a genuine political debate, but it is, on many campuses, what students have to settle for. It is entirely understandable why someone, exposed to years of this sort of thing, would form the impression that the political debate had been won by liberals.
It also explains why so many academics are seemingly oblivious to the existence of conservatives who are neither stupid nor evil. To be an effective marketplace of ideas, universities should supplement their ongoing diversity programs with an intellectual diversity program. Any university that views itself as a marketplace of ideas will want, besides having faculty who look different, professors who think differently. As part of this intellectual diversity program, they could hire at least a few conservative professors.
Until universities take such steps, though, there is a stop-gap measure they can take: They can devote a portion of their speaking-program budgets to speakers who will challenge the world views of members of the campus community.
So welcome to Dayton, Rev. Wright. And I hope that before this decade is over, Wright State will invite someone to campus to present the other side of the debate.
Interesting he mentioned Rev. Wright, who if not an outright Holocaust Denier, is certainly an anti-semite.
Hope you don’t mind that I added this to the front page topic and then added the bracketed comments to the title. It was refreshing to read that the Wright State University Professor had the courage to state the facts to his colleagues.
“Nutter Center?”
Seriously? Wow.
It is true that John McCain and Sarah Palin appeared at Nutter Center, but they paid us for the privilege of using our facilities... On exploring this "speaker gap" with my colleagues, I was surprised by their response to my suggestion that Wright State should invite conservative speakers. "You mean someone like Glenn Beck?" they would reply. Another reaction was that although they have nothing against inviting conservatives, they wouldn't want any Holocaust deniers appearing on campus, the suggestion being that I would have a hard time finding a conservative who accepted the Holocaust as fact. Many of my colleagues, I soon discovered, see no reason to expose the campus community to the political debate between conservatives and liberals. They are confident that the debate is over......the debate about the Holocaust is over in the Islamic world, which denies that it ever happened, even while threatening another one -- and it would be surprising if Wright State wouldn't (or hasn't) invited a jihadist or wannabee to speak. Thanks Stand Watch Listen.
Andrew Sullivan hasn’t been a conservative for several years.
Amahdinejob is a Holocaust denier but Columbia University didn’t have any issue with hosting him.
Nice to see this since I earned my MBA at WSU in 87 and was an adjunct professor for a few years. Like most colleges, a conservative prof is a rare and vanishing breed....
Interesting, but not unexpected. My short 4 quarters at Cleveland State University in Ohio was a rude awakening. Even back in the 1990s, it was as if we were attaining our education in the Soviet Union.
This would be a good area into which the new governor of Ohio might spend some time, given that these are taxpayer-funded colleges. The taxpayer ought to know that they are being fleeced of their hard-earned cash to support these indoctrination centers. We freepers know it, but the general public is generally unaware.
Time for parents to choose carefully when they send their children to university.
There are honorable colleges that uphold our values and teach with honor and integrity. They don’t tear down America or our flag.
I’m proudly continuing my 31st year as a conservative college professor. I can’t understand how a pinko can teach capitalism with a straight face. (Well, actually, I can. It’s called hypocrisy.)
FYI
Wright State who? Like wtf, never heard of the lame ass college/university. =.=
The GOP controlled House should deny federal dollars to universities until they have a ratio of 50% conservative /
50% liberal professors.
This is a brave man. If he’s not a conservative he is certainly a person with an intellectual curiosity. Good to know there are still such men around.
Angela Davis is a terrorist isn’t she?
My other discovery is that many of my colleagues assume that those who favor conservative viewpoints typically do so because they are stupid and quite possibly evil.Actually, this point of view is universal among the liberal suckfish I've met. And I met a lot having worked at a large N.E. university.
It is without a doubt one of the greatest tragedies of academia that many American students know Cornell West but have no idea who Thomas Sowell is. Nows it turns out many leftist profs have no idea who he is either. No real shock.
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