DENVER - A Republican proposal to boost pluralism in academia in Colorado has enraged the left, prompting cries of McCarthyism and calls for an investigation.
War dissent on campus: A problem or not?***THE SEPT. 11 attacks on America and the war against terrorism have touched off an important, often impassioned debate about patriotism and dissent. Attitudes on college campuses in particular have become a center of controversy.
Last month, the Washington-based American Council of Trustees and Alumni issued a report under the provocative title, ''Defending Civilization: How Our Universities Are Failing America - And What Can Be Done About It.''
The nonpartisan council - co-founded in 1995 by Lynne Cheney, the wife of Vice President Dick Cheney, and Senator Joseph Lieberman - blasts what it sees as the morally equivocal and downright anti-American responses to the conflict at many institutions of higher learning. According to the report, ''the message of much of academe was clear: Blame America First.''
This charge is supported by a list of 115 statements and incidents on campuses across the country. Some commentators find the report alarming in a very different way than its authors intended: not as evidence of rot in the ivory tower, but as evidence of a climate in which free speech is threatened and criticism of US policies is labeled unpatriotic. Writing in USA Today, Don Campbell, a lecturer in journalism at Emory University in Atlanta, derides the council for sounding like ''a pack of Joe McCarthy wannabes.''***
A CLASS STRUGGLE: Tenure of Avowed Marxist Controversy jolts College***"In a nutshell, it means I have a fundamental disagreement with capitalism," he said. "I think that capitalism is a system based on exploitation and oppression and domination and racism and war and lots of other things.
"So I'm totally opposed to capitalism, and I think that the majority of the people of this country ought to get together and transform the system," he said. "I think we need to replace capitalism with some kind of democratic socialism."***
Professors take on role as high priests of activism***"This is a mock funeral for the innocent victims of the war against Iraq, and this was the closest thing I had to a minister's gown," University of Houston professor Bob Buzzanco quipped about the black robe with royal blue felt stripes that UH had given him to wear at graduation ceremonies.
The attire seemed fitting. As student activism continues to wane at many of America's campuses, professors such as Buzzanco increasingly find themselves playing dual roles of teachers and political organizers. ***
Campus Marxists are a funny bunch--until they end up running your country ***Both of my grandfathers were exterminated by Stalinist terror. My father and mother both barely escaped the Gulag. But here I am, with PhD students, being treated to a one-hour discussion about "homophobia" on campus. My colleagues are agonizing about how "Homophobia-Free Zone" pink stickers must be put on every door in the university. "But what if a professor or a teaching assistant refuses to have one put on his door?" one of them asks indignantly. After a few seconds of silence, another answers, "Well, then a committee might just have to be set up where these people will be taken to account." Serious head-nods follow. ***
International educators conference held in Cuba*** HAVANA - President Fidel Castro told a group of educators from around the world that education can create a better world by helping to resolve social problems, such as the nagging racial discrimination that still exists in Cuba. Closing the international educators conference here on Friday night, Castro told hundreds of participants that over four decades his socialist government can boast high marks for its primary school programs. But he said secondary education here needs serious improvement.***
Eco-Crimminal***Both Congress and federal law enforcement are well-aware of eco-terrorism's destructive potential. Rep. George Nethercutt, R-WA, summed up the situation well when he asked "How do we deal with this home-grown brand of al-Qaeda?" at last year's House Subcommittee hearings, proposing improved intelligence and less restrictions on law enforcement authorities. However, many members of the media, local prosecutors and judges, university administrations, and city governments aren't quite as well informed.
If they took the threat of ecoterrorism seriously, would the University of Oregon permit a conference of unrepentant ex-terrorists and career criminals, all of whom advocate lawbreaking in some form or another, from civil disobedience to murder, to use their taxpayer-funded facilities? If they took the threat of ecoterrorism seriously, would a court in Nebraska, three months after 9/11, shunt three Earth Liberation Front activists charged with felonies into a "diversion" program which allowed them to escape with community service - without even a trial, without even criminal records? Local governments would be wise to listen to radical environmental and animal rights activists and take them at their word; this might prevent future crimes. Would a hundred San Diego firefighters have been needed to put out a three-alarm fire in the middle of San Diego August 1st, a fire that did $50 million in damage and endangered the lives of hundreds, if just a few policemen were monitoring the preparations for the concurrent "Animal Liberation Weekend," attended by many Earth Liberation Front activists?***
During the past two decades, participants have had the opportunity to engage in dialogue with public figures such as Madeline Albright, Corazon Aquino, Peter Arnett, Fidel Castro, Arthur C. Clarke, Mikhail Gorbachev, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Richard Threlkeld, and Desmond Tutu.
A particularly successful element of Semester at Sea's in-port field program since 1994 has been involvement at the local level of area kindergarten to 12th grade students through the Vicarious Voyage Around the World program. Coordinated through the institute in conjunction with the shipboard administration, groups of three to five Semester at Sea students "adopt" a grade school class and communicate with them throughout the term. Personal exchanges during the voyage provide K-12 students with a very real connection to the experiences of those traveling around the world. Items sent home in "culture packets" - a newspaper, menu, map, stamps, or language brochure - enable the teacher to make the international learning experience come alive in the local classroom. ***