Check out the pro/con debate on today’s opinion pages about whether Kansas needs an Academic Bill of Rights. Academic reform activist David Horowitz argues that professors shouldn’t be permitted "to fill their classrooms with uninformed opinions they may hold as ordinary citizens or to vent their biases on controversial issues of the day, or to impose such attitudes on impressionable students through the authority they have been granted as a result of their expertise." But Christopher Brooks, president of the Faculty Senate at Wichita State University, responds that Horowitz uses anecdotes and misinformation to greatly exaggerate problems, and that universities can and do police themselves without a bill of rights or intervention by the Legislature. "Universities deny tenure, they dismiss for cause, they punish chronic low performance, they provide grievance procedures, they offer a court of appeals, and they share governance by communicating with all constituent groups their concerns and needs," Brooks writes.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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22 Comments
I’ll have to check out that debate when the paper gets here.
For now I will just observe that Whoreowitz sold out his ideals a long time ago for money. He is not, I think, the best source to look to in matters of education. In matters of selling out he is however….. eminently qualified.
Academic Bill of Rights? Just whose rights are being gored — the professional staff of our state owned universities or the Kansas taxpayers? Because differences in opinion seem to erupt periodically, it would be interesting to put in writing an “academic bill of rights” that would mutually benefit both parties.
Isn’t it interesting that whenever the reactionaries like Horowitz is now (after being a radical leftist in the 60’s, go figure) use the phrase “Bill of Rights,” it’s to ram their ideology down someone else’s throat.
“Right to work state.” Kansas is a right to work state. You know what that means? Unions can’t require membership.
Wow. Some “right.” The right to get fired for not kissing your boss’s butt vigorously enough is more like it.
I was sitting in a Shakespeare class at WSU the other day (not a teacher) and the class was studying “Coriolanus,” a study of a Roman tyrant.
The students were peppering the instructor with “isn’t this just like Bush?” and “what do you think about the war?” and the professor just said, “nope, not going to go there” and moved on with the lesson.
If a professor just stood up and pontificated upon current events day after day, the students would be complaining, rightly, that it isn’t relevant to the subject matter.
I don’t see that happening, do you?
Affirmative action for conservatives, who can’t even prove they are being discriminated against. That’s all it is.
I don’t know anyone in my department or college who vents their biases on their students. Every professor in my department (even all those that might lean toward the liberal side) thinks that Ward Churchill at CU is very unprofessional for his comments, and also that the KU professor (forgot his name) that got into hot water for his inflammatory email is also unprofessional. I have neither commented on my political views or party affiliation (nor has anyone ever asked me) nor do I know of anyone in my college at WSU that feels it is appropriate to do such.
Unfortunately, Horowitz is attempting to (very deceptively) exploit those that are unfamiliar with academia when he states that professors are paid to work 6 to 9 hours per week (in class) and receive four months of vacation per year (yes, a faculty contract is for nine, not twelve months). I confess that I do actually spend six hours of week before a class; however, you then must add in all the office hours, class preparation, preparing exams and assignments, grading those exams and assignments, service requirements to the department, college, and university, and then add in the all important research that is required. All added together, you have something in the vicinity of 60 to 80 hours per week. I will be the last to complain.
What Horowitz refers to as the four months of paid vacation, i.e., the four weeks around Christmas/New Year and the summer months are busy as well, since that’s when we often have the time to focus solely on the research aspect of our job.
Of course, many outside the university often have comments such as “two classes, that’s really easy work”. It’s often difficult for individuals to realize that much more is going on than the time spent before a class.
My views on this subject remain the same:http://blogs.kansas.com/weblog/2006/01/chilly_forecast.html#comment-12516027
Just READ the damn thing. It’s scary.
Well said, Dr. Brooks, even if you usually annoy me. ;-)
The David Horowitz argument concerning hours worked, pay and vacation time has nothing to do with the argument for or against an acedemic bill of rights. It’s disengenuous at best, and misleading for sure.
There is enough anecdotal evidence of professors brow-beating students with views and theories they may not agree with (political and social studies) to take a serious look at the problem. The recent firing of the Harvard president is one instance of the PC atmosphere overuling common sense.
But does it mean we need this bill of rights? Not necessarily. There are rules concerning fairness in teaching already in place in most colleges. If the universities enforce the rules, no bill should be needed. If they don’t, then it is an option worth looking at.
The bottom line is I don’t think politicians have any business telling universities what they can or can’t think and teach.
Great posts walker and rage.
Thanks, KFG!
And you’re right, JM; that IS the bottom line.
Thanks, kfg and Rage.
You have to love how government employees are up in arms about increased government regulation. If you don’t like them getting in your business then turn away the money.
Conservative Republicans tend to be against quotas. Because their ideology is under-represented on college campuses, they want “idea qoutas”?
At its base this movement seems to have the “Republicans as victims” theme to it.
I would also counter that Academic freedom has protected some pretty far right ideas. I am thinking of Shockley (spelling may be wrong) and some other clown in California (Jensen) who were trying to say that blacks were inferior in terms of I.Q. to whites.
Any way, rightly or wrongly, I question the need for this solution. And, if one is needed, I can’t see where a KS BOE type solution makes much sense.
I suggest letting the marketplace of ideas determine what gets represented on campuses – surely Repubs won’t mind that, or will they?
And I just got to read Whoreowitz. (busy day cutting brush with a chainsaw….you know pResidential stuff)
Well no surprise just as I figured.
Conservatives rant against a “liberal” bias in media and on college campuses.
I find increasinlly that the “bias” is not necessarily “liberal”. It is just that it is not “conservative” enough.
In Kansas, I would argue that the conservative way of “thinking” holds overwehlming sway. If it is the job of univerities and professors to not just regurgitate accepted dogma but to open minds and encourage inquiry and free thinking……well maybe a little swerve to the left is not only appropriate but damned necessary.
Maybe Whoreowitz is in favor of an “Academic bill of RIGHTS” with the emphasis not on freedom but Right wing ideal.
JRI think if you read David Horowitz latest articles on the Bush administration, you will be pleasently surprised. He does not like what is going on, and is not afraid to say so, unlike many Democrats if office.
But on the subject of Horowitz himself: I don’t agree with him all the time, but his writing is far and above most other political writers, in terms of quality writing, that he is a pleasure to read. Unlike someone like, say, Ann Coulter, who should be writing books for the mentally challanged. Opps, shouldn’t disrespect the challanged should I?
Dang, see what 5 12 hour nights in a row does to you? I meant to say George Wills. How the hell I could confuse Dave with George . . . I think a pee test is in order:-) My bad, folks.
Walker,Take this container and step into that restroom, please.
NEW GOVERNMENT REGULATION, per PUBLIC LAW, 666-6666{eew}, concerning COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES:
Amendment to Section 8, part Hydrogenated.
a} All Faculty Members are required each day to fully and accurately complete all sections of mandatory form FU-BKZ-W3-C4N in detail. This includes strictly following the instruction at the top of each form: “DO NOT TO READ THIS FORM.”
b) Failure to follow all the provisions of this law shall be summary grounds for dismissmal from state employment.
WSU Professor is exactly right. College teaching is a very demanding job when done well and practically the easiest job in the world when done poorly.
Keeping up with research and writing articles is a tremendous professional burden. Grading, really grading, papers is immensely time consuming. One five page paper can take more than a half hour to read and respond to both for ideas and expression.
Writing multiple choice tests is much more difficult than people realize. You need a variety of questions that discriminate between low achievers, mid achievers, and high achievers. It requires a lot of specialized knowledge to do correctly.
Horowitz is just mad that there’s one place in America that hasn’t been fully indoctrinated with conservative ideology and can never be, BECAUSE IT’S FACT AND RESEARCH BASED.
BTW, JMWalker, I have to quibble with your otherwise fine post.
President Sommers (sp?) at Harvard got fired for exactly the kind of thing Horowitz is complaining about–professors shooting their mouths off about things outside their fields.
Why is “PC intimidation” when Sommers gets scooted out for making the incendiary and unsubstantiated claim that “women’s brains can’t handle math and science” but it’s just fine for Ward Churchill to become the poster boy for right-wing complaints about (so-called) leftist ideology in academia?
It’s not consistent. Unprofessional behavior, whether by lefty Churchill or righty Sommers is unprofessional behavior, and should be condemned on that basis.
PL,While Sommers has always been controversial, He has also been a champion of the students, the people that are there to LEARN. I suggest you read the following link before you make any more aspersions as to whether or not there is a PC atmosphere, or Sommers is making “incendiary and unsubstantiated claim” concerning women’s brains.
I respect most of your posts but this time, I’m afraid, you’re wrong.
http://themitchellreport.typepad.com/themitchellreport/2006/03/aint_that_the_d.html
Anti-intellectual teacher-bashing has been going on since Day 1. Uneducated people in power love to hate people smarter than they are. On the other hand, arrogant, snooty, professors haven’t helped their case any.
The BOE needs to develop a backbone and start teaching English to those illegal f*cks instead of caving in teaching everyone Spanish. Why? Because language is one of the many psychological ways of conquering a people. The Spaniards did it to the South and Central indigenous groups, how ironic that the descendants of those groups are doing the same thing to our people! Note to Kansas BOE: GET YOUR TITS OUT OF THE ILLEGALS MOUTHS! Teach OUR LANGUAGE!!!