Free Republic

Just over a week ago, Temple University’s Board of Trustees adopted a new policy on academic freedom, one that extended rights to students and not only to professors. The policy, which goes into effect today states in part that students “should be encouraged to develop the capacity for critical judgment and to engage in a sustained and independent search for the truth,” “should be free to take reasoned exception to the information or views offered in any course of study and to reserve judgment about matters of opinion,” and “should have protection through orderly grievance procedures against prejudiced or capricious...

Critics of higher education who say American colleges do not prepare students for life after graduation may be way off base: Among federal judges, the problem may be that they do try to apply their education to the post-graduate day jobs that they hold. “At a seminar for federal judges in Kansas City, one of the more conservative judges said, ‘Isn’t it a shame that people don’t know the five rights in the first amendment,’” historian John Kaminski remembered in a recent forum at the Cato Institute. “One of the more activist judges said, ‘Five rights, I’ve been giving 25...

Confronting Academic Liberalism by: Julia A. Seymour, June 16, 2006 One sued her university, another was caricatured in her college newspaper, and the third stood up against school administration and would not back down. Conservative student activists are no longer anomalies, rare individuals who stand up to fight against liberalism on their campuses. The Eagle Forum Summit not only drew student activists, it featured several student speakers who have been waging battles for conservatism in Georgia, Virginia and Utah. Ruth Malhotra spoke first about her experiences at Georgia Tech which included being singled out in class and being threatened with...

The American Association of University Professors is trying to spin the results of a poll it conducted to make it look like a ringing repudiation of the Academic Bill of Rights crafted by author and activist David Horowitz. “They do have an instinctive feel and sense that the kind of legislation that Horowitz is advancing is just not acceptable,” AAUP General Secretary Roger Bowen told the Chronicle of Higher Education. What the AAUP is trumpeting is the poll result that shows that about 80 percent of those questioned do not believe that “The government should control what gets taught in...

I must admit that I left the Millersville hearings on academic freedom angry, because I had the nagging feeling that the Pennsylvania House Select Committee was missing the point. I felt like I’d been had. It has been my responsibility to report on the hearings at Temple University and Millersville University for The Campus Report, and I will be attending the final hearings on May 31 and June 1, as well as reading the committee’s report when it comes out. When I learned of the committee several months ago, I had high hopes for Pennsylvania students that the investigation by...

Unlike the state assemblymen tasked with investigating the controversy, I personally know that there is a problem with academic freedom in the Keystone state and around the country and a lack of student testifiers is not proof otherwise. While running a booth at the Pennsylvania Leadership Conference, I met students, parents and grandparents all concerned with the unchecked liberal bias on their campuses. I met a young man who wrote a final paper from a perspective he finds revolting just because he knew it was the only way to get an A. He said writing it literally made his stomach...

Dear Ms. Seymour, I recently caught your article, “Professor Condemns Committee” (May 19, 2006). I believe that we spoke at the Millersville hearings, directly following my testimony, though I spoke to so many that day, it is difficult to keep the names and faces together. If it isn’t too forward of me, I would like to address a few items included in your article. You say, “Smith did not mention that Horowitz has said that the idea for ABOR is taken from the 1940 statement on Academic Freedom and Tenure of the AAUP…” You imply, I think, that I was...

Millersville University’s History Department chair, Francis J. Bremer, testified before the state House Select Committee on Academic Freedom saying that schools have grievance procedures in place and these are sufficient for students’ protection. Bremer shared his belief that university education has the goal of “creating young men and women who are self-reflective and critically engaged with all aspects of the world in which they live.” He stated that faculty and students express themselves openly on controversial issues and that sometimes a professor’s view may anger or surprise students, but this is good because challenges help critical thinking and leads to...

Professor Mark Bauerlein of Emory University traveled from Atlanta, Georgia to Millersville, Pennsylvania for hearings on academic freedom in late April to share his thoughts on how bias in academia becomes institutionalized. “If we get too much uniformity, too much agreement on debatable issues, too little dissent, then the group slides into complacency, insularity, and groupthink. Within the group, attitudes harden. As the years pass and the members reinforce each others’ opinions, those opinions start to look like more than just opinions. They become the truth. To agree with them is simply to be rational and ethical. Anybody who disagrees...

Drawing comparisons to Hitler, Mao and the Committee on Public Information, Dr. Kurt Smith of Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania attacked the Pennsylvania state committee on Academic Freedom for the hearings they have been holding throughout the commonwealth. “Pennsylvania’s university professors stand accused today, investigated by this very committee, cast as leftists, Communists, and Socialists, who have conspired to secretly indoctrinate students in their leftist ideologies. Have we learned nothing over these past two millennia?” asked Smith, an assistant professor of Philosophy. Smith argued that House Resolution 177, which created the House Select Committee on Academic Freedom in Pa., did not...

Arriving at the Bolger Conference Center on Millersville University’s campus to listen to Pennsylvania state House committee hearings on academic freedom, I spotted yellow papers on windshields across the parking lot. When I picked one up it read, “Stop the Academic Bill of Restrictions. Free Exchange on Campus. Do you want free speech? Make sure the legislature hears your opposition to the Academic Bill of Restrictions.” During the hearings, Free Exchange on Campus had a couple of people lined up to testify as well as several people to speak during the public comment portion. My question however was, “what is...

Since I began working at Accuracy in Academia one of my primary tasks has been reporting on the academic freedom movement. In pursuit of these stories, I have been able to attend hearings in Pennsylvania of the state House Select Committee on Academic Freedom at Temple University and Millersville University. I’ve listened to radio programming from Lion Radio at Penn State and have conversed with Pennsylvanians on the topic of academic freedom whenever possible. Last week as I searched for new information on the issue I found an opinion piece by William Kashatus, assistant professor of History at Luzerne County...

Perhaps the most contentious issue surrounding the academic freedom movement is whether or not legislators should get involved with passing things like the Academic Bill of Rights. At the national Academic Freedom Conference held on April 6-7 in Washington, D.C. one panel of legislators, some who have been vilified publicly for their concerns, discussed measures taken within their own states. Former state Senator John Andrews of Colorado said that what many denounce as anecdotal evidence, legislators term “putting a human face on the problem.” “We were the first state to consider legislation,” said Sen. Andrews, explaining that a bill was...

Several professors from across the nation came together at the first conference on academic freedom, held in our nation’s capital last week. Not all the professors on the panel discussing “Faculty Issues” supported the Academic Bill of Rights, David Horowitz’ legislation to promote academic freedom. Yet, they all agree on one thing, it is time for a change on college campuses. “If you’re a multi-university,” started the moderator, Steve Balch, President of the National Association of Scholars, “than you should have many personalities.” He then elaborated that the biggest problem facing universities is, “the inability of the timid to stand...

ABOR Bill Referred to Higher Ed Committee in Albany AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to creating an academic bill of rights The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. The education law is amended by adding a new section 224-b...

College campuses can be political hotbeds. And that has some members of Congress thinking they should get involved. Some Republicans are pushing a measure through the House of Representatives meant to ensure that students hear "dissenting viewpoints" in class and are protected from retaliation because of their politics or religion. Colleges say the measure isn't needed, but with Congress providing billions of dollars to higher education, they are worried. The measure's chief promoter, Marxist-turned-conservative activist David Horowitz, says an academic bill of rights will protect students from possible political "hectoring" and discrimination by their professors.... The federal government provides loans...

March 23, 2005 OPERATION ACADEMIC FREEDOM Capitol Rally for Academic Freedom to Highlight College Republicans’ annual Convention "We have the distinct privilege to be joined by an long list of leading Republican figures who will address us at various events throughout the weekend," said Mason Harrison, a sophomore at UC Davis and the Convention Director. Speakers include Sen. Tom McClintock, Bill Simon, Rosario Marin, David Horowitz, Ward Connerly, Assemblyman Mark Wyland, Senator Bill Morrow, former congressman Jim Rogan, actor/comedian John O’Hurley and possibly even Gov. Schwarzenegger. The highlight of the weekend will be a bipartisan rally hosted by CCR on...

A speech about academic freedom turned into a "violation of First Amendment rights," according to Dana Cloud, a member of the International Socialist Organization. Six people, including one juvenile, were arrested Wednesday night after protesting David Horowitz's speech at Townes Hall at the UT School of Law. The Texas Federalist Society hosted the meeting and invited Horowitz, a right-wing advocate and author of the Academic Bill of Rights, to speak. Opposition groups were holding signs and speaking out during Horowitz's speech on Wednesday, but when they were told to stop speaking, some took out noisemakers to mark their disapproval of...

States Considering Legislation to Counter Perceived Liberalism on College CampusesBy Elizabeth DeForest Associated Press Writer Published: Feb 12, 2005 WESTERVILLE, Ohio (AP) - College sophomore Charis Bridgman tends to keep quiet in class if she thinks her professor might disagree with her Christian-influenced ideas. The 19-year-old says schools such as her Otterbein College in suburban Columbus should be a place for open discussion, but she feels some professors make students afraid to speak up. "They might chastise me, or not even listen to my opinion or give me a chance to explain," she said. Professors would have to include diverse...