Free Republic

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...

The only student who testified, other than a few who came forward during public comment, at Millersville University before the Pennsylvania State House Committee on academic freedom was Terry Christopher. Christopher, a Millersville University junior in Speech Communication, told the state legislators that Millersville does not have an academic freedom problem. “I have taken courses with professors on both ends of the political spectrum, and I’ve found that their political affiliations are not what have made me learn or not learn. I have learned best in classes that are open to free debate,” said Christopher. Christopher urged committee members not...