Free Republic

Conservative state lawmakers are targeting what they see as left-leaning university professors, pushing a series of bills in recent and upcoming sessions designed to ensure that students are not unduly influenced by professors' beliefs. The push has raised concerns among the academic community about academic freedom, with many worried the push will put legislators and administrators in charge of the college classroom. Conservative lawmakers have floated or are planning a host of proposals that would restrict what students can be required ----

Phil Orenstein just sent me the following e-mail stating that the Academic Bill of Rights (ABR) has been introduced in the NY State Assembly (it had been introduced a couple of months ago in the NY State Senate). Please write your STATE ASSEMBLYMAN in support of the Academic Bill of Rights. Please also consider writing to Catherine Nolan, Chair of the Higher Ed Committee and Senate Majority Leader Bruno. The faculty unions will bombard them with letters claiming the right to indoctrinate students and suppress alternative views. They don't like interference even though they are paid with your tax dollars....

In New York State the political movers, shakers and hangers-on dance to the same tune, and as the tune changes so does the choreography. Except for the fringe Conservative and Libertarian Parties, the political scene here ranges from a right wing flanked by liberal Republicans to a left wing flanked by radical Democrats such as New York City Councilman Charles Barron, a former Black Panther and advocate of open admissions in universities. Candace de Russy, a trustee of the State University of New York and academic reformer, expected a contest when she took up the cause of the Academic Bill...

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...

PHILADELPHIA — Christian DeJohn returned from a National Guard tour in Bosnia only to fight his own war with academics at Temple University who he says have held up his master's thesis because of political conflicts in the classroom.To some conservatives, the case represents a national trend by some liberal professors to infringe on conservative students' right to free speech at public colleges and universities. The debate has reached more than a dozen state legislatures, which dole out the taxpayer funds to those schools, but so far there's been more talk than action. Legislation modeled after an "academic bill of...

Before I begin, I want to say that I am honored and grateful to the Committee for inviting me. These hearings are historic in their concern for the health of academic freedom on our college and university campuses, and I thank you for allowing me to participate. But I also want to express my concern about statements that have been made by some members of this Committee which raise a question as to whether those members are actually interested in what I and others who have come before this committee have to say, or whether they think this is all...

An Historic Moment for Academic Freedom By Peter Collier FrontPageMagazine.com | January 9, 2006 Today marks a historic moment in the movement to return academic integrity to the American university, as a Select Committee of the Pennsylvania Legislature opens a new round of hearings into the status of academic freedom on the state’s public campuses at Temple University in Philadelphia. “It will be the first time that the university administrators who have ignored student rights and have allowed faculty to turn parts of the curriculum into indoctrination and abuse students in the process will be called to account,” says David...

HARRISBURG, Pa., Dec. 25 (UPI) -- Several states including Pennsylvania are considering legislation to encourage free debate and protect students against discrimination for political views. David Horowitz, president of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture, has been lobbying more than a dozen state legislatures to pass an "Academic Bill of Rights, reported the New York Times Sunday. Horowitz says his campaign for intellectual diversity is nonpartisan, but the campaign appears to be fueled by studies that show the number of Democratic professors is generally much larger than the number of Republicans -- and by stories of students, mostly...

We begin this week with a quiz. Imagine yourself as a freshman at State U. On the first day of class a professor walks in the door and says: "Hello, I'm Joe Schmoe, and I like sex with men. Christians hate gays, and the 'r' in Republican stands for 'racist.' We have too many Nazis running around on campus, and if you're a conservative you'll probably fail my course." How do you react? (a) What a jerk, I hope it's not too late to drop this course. (b) What a hoot, now I know what to say to get a...

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...

It has far fewer campus chapters than NOW, but a fledgling group called NeW is mounting a cultural challenge to the National Organization for Women and joining a growing attack on the progressive culture of U.S. universities. ___ WASHINGTON, D.C. (WOMENSENEWS)--"Out with the NOW, in with the NeW!" That is the motto of the Network of Enlightened Women (NeW), a fledgling college group in Virginia that wants to change the campus culture of feminism and challenge the agenda of groups such as the National Organization for Women, which has more than 100 official and unofficial campus chapters in the nation....

Dear RA members, The text below is that of an Email I sent to Bates faculty and administrators clearing up some of the misleading ideas regarding the Bates Academic Bill of Rights that had been going around amongst them as a result of somewhat misleading recent press coverage. I feel that I effectively addressed the true intentions of the resolution and the questions being raised that the RA that passed the resolution was unrepresentative. Since most of the recent discussion over the RA listserve to the contrary is coming from people who weren't even at the May 23 or any...

College students deserve bill of rights June 8, 2005 WARD CHURCHILL, AN ethnic studies teacher at the University of Colorado, wrote a paper referring to the 3,000 people who died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attack as "little Eichmans." Adolph Eichman was a Nazi colonel who was responsible for the murders of several thousand European Jews during World War II. As thousands of Colorado residents clamored for CU to fire the professor, Churchill maintained that he was immune to the pressures of Colorado's taxpaying residents, who were advising him not to implant his personal bias on things academic. Any student...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Bates College Representative Assembly Unanimously Passes Academic Bill of Rights LEWISTON, ME - The Bates College Representative Assembly unanimously passed a resolution endorsing the principles of the Academic Bill of Rights during their final meeting of the 2004-2005 academic year on Monday evening. The resolution’s chief sponsor was Nathaniel Walton, a member of the Assembly and President of the Bates College Republicans. Bates now joins only a handful of other private colleges and universities whose student governments have endorsed the Academic Bill of Rights. The resolution, labeled RA 05-36, encourages an academic environment for both students and...

Free speech advocate David Horowitz urged Florida legislators Tuesday to pass a bill that would restore freedom of speech on college campuses long dominated by liberal faculties. "It is not the place of teachers to force conclusions on controversial matters," Horowitz told the House Education Council, according to the Palm Beach Post. "This is not a controversial bill. It has been made controversial by people who have a vested interest in keeping universities as their political platforms." Crafted by Horowitz and introduced in the Legislature by Rep. Dennis Baxley, the bill seeks to rectify the suppression of conservative thought on...

TALLAHASSEE — Republicans on the House Choice and Innovation Committee voted along party lines Tuesday to pass a bill that aims to stamp out “leftist totalitarianism” by “dictator professors” in the classrooms of Florida’s universities. The Academic Freedom Bill of Rights, sponsored by Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, passed 8-to-2 despite strenuous objections from the only two Democrats on the committee. The bill has two more committees to pass before it can be considered by the full House. While promoting the bill Tuesday, Baxley said a university education should be more than “one biased view by the professor, who as a...

A national movement that supporters say protects college students from indoctrination by college professors but opponents say stifles debate made its way to Minnesota on Wednesday when two legislators proposed legislation that they call the "Academic Bill of Rights." Sen. Michele Bachmann, R-Stillwater, and Rep. Ray Vandeveer, R-Forest Lake, said their bill would require the state's publicly funded colleges and universities to adopt policies that would mandate that professors not use their classrooms to promote their personal political or ideological beliefs. It also says that students would not be punished for disagreeing with their instructors' politics. snipLawmakers in 21 other...

Here in Ohio lots of people are in an uproar about State Sen. Larry Mumper's Senate Bill 24 (SB 24), which is based on David Horowitz's "Academic Bill of Rights." I write a weekly column for my school newspaper, and a few weeks ago I wrote a column advocating SB 24's implementation. For the next week I was mauled by liberals who wrote letters to the editor saying I want to strip the entire universe of its freedom of speech, that conservatives are whiny babies, and other friendly reminders that left-wing radicalism is alive and well at my school. Even...

Once again it falls to a lowly columnist to explain something that has apparently flown over the heads of almost everyone else in this university town. I am speaking of course of State Senate Bill 24, or, rather, what is being called the "Academic Bill of Rights." The Academic Bill of Rights was first submitted to educators by David Horowitz, a noted author and conservative political advocate who wrote the proposal, and only when it was stonewalled by universities did Horowitz submit it to legislatures. The bill was introduced to ensure the freedom of ideas and expression in a profession...

WESTERVILLE, Ohio - 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 opinions in classrooms under legislation being pushed in Ohio and several other states by conservatives who fear too many professors...