RE: [Marxism] UCLA [and Pennsylvania] Witch Hunt

["David McDonald" <dbmcdonald@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

If someone would start a petition threatening whatever to the UCLA Alumni
Association or anyone else you choose if it does not immediately act to
counter this, I would be happy to sign and send to other UCLA grads I am
acquainted with. I am disgusted but have no time personally to start this.

David McDonald
UCLA, 1969

> -----Original Message-----
> From: marxism-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:marxism-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Brian Shannon
> Sent: Thursday, January 19, 2006 3:46 PM
> To: Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition
> Subject: [Marxism] UCLA [and Pennsylvania] Witch Hunt
>
>
> DEBATING ACADEMIC FREEDOM
>
> Temple University News
> Brandon Lausch
> 1/19/06
>
> There are "two different realities" of academic freedom at Temple,
> state Rep. Dan Frankel said here recently during state hearings
> investigating the subject. And that, he said, "concerns me more than
> almost anything else."
>
> Frankel (D., Allegheny) is a member of the state's Select Committee
> on Academic Freedom in Higher Education, which heard conflicting
> testimony on Jan. 9 and Jan. 10 from President David Adamany, Temple
> professors, Temple students and others who are either lauding or
> condemning the professionalism of professors at universities across
> the state.
>
> Lawmakers in July passed House Resolution 177 - sponsored by 37
> Republicans and six Democrats - to investigate charges of slanted
> teaching methods and to ensure that current university grievance
> policies effectively protect students. The resolution led to the
> creation of the committee, which is touring the state to examine if
> the allegations against professors at public and state-related
> universities are cause for corrective legislation.
>
> Free speech groups and mostly conservative activists, including the
> author of the Academic Bill of Rights, David Horowitz, say they are
> increasingly concerned that college students are not sufficiently
> informed of their academic freedoms and are therefore more vulnerable
> to indoctrination by radical teachers who may condemn students with
> conflicting views.
>
> Horowitz, who is widely regarded as the driving force behind academic
> freedom legislation, said during his testimony that current academic
> freedom rules are "violated every single day on every campus in this
> state, especially at Temple."
>
> "I wouldn't be persuaded to be here if it wasn't for 20 years of
> being on campuses and seeing this," Horowitz, who said he interviewed
> more than 100 area students, as well as hundreds more at universities
> across the country, testified.
>
> Professors and university administrators roundly deny those claims,
> saying professional standards and existing policies are more than
> enough to guard against teaching biases and to ensure students' rights.
>
> This debate repeated itself during Temple's hearings, held before a
> crowd of approximately 50 people in a second floor Student Center
> conference room.
>
> Stephen Zelnick, a veteran Temple professor, sharply criticized the
> academe for its lack of intellectual diversity and said teaching
> biases are pervasive.
>
> Zelnick said many inexperienced, "highly idealistic and deeply
> opinionated" faculty teach the university's general education courses
> - including Temple's race requirement - and added that in observing
> 100 classes, he "almost never heard a kind word about conservative
> issues."
>
> To help rectify the problem, Zelnick and others suggested that
> universities submit annual academic freedom reports for state
> officials, who could then monitor universities without encroaching on
> professors. Horowitz said two other Temple programs - intellectual
> heritage and the university's first-year writing program - also
> violate academic freedoms by pushing political agendas. Horowitz said
> the goal of the first-year writing program, which includes English 40
> and English 50, "is to indoctrinate students with radical views of
> gender and, to a lesser degree, race."
>
> After Horowitz's testimony, Susan Wells, chair of the English
> department, refuted Horowitz during public comment, testifying that
> "we desperately value having different perspectives in the
> classroom." Daniel Tompkins, director of intellectual heritage, also
> defended his program's curriculum, saying that Zelnick and Horowitz
> were "cherry picking intelligence."
>
> Debates also persisted among university administrators and state
> officials.
>
> During the question and answer portion of Adamany's testimony, state
> Rep. Gib Armstrong (R., Lancaster) read excerpts from a dozen student
> complaints he said he received from Temple students in the past year,
> most of which pointed to liberal bias among professors.
>
> Armstrong, the chief sponsor of HR 177, said one complaint alleged a
> professor used an English class as a vehicle to spread Communist and
> Marxist views. Another grievance claimed a professor routinely
> criticized the war in Afghanistan. Yet another said a professor asked
> the class why the "U.S. military [studies] the languages of other
> people."
>
> "So they can kill them," Armstrong read.
>
> Logan Fisher, the only Temple student scheduled to testify before the
> committee, said professors have made him and his friends feel awkward
> when voicing dissenting opinions during class. Fisher, a senior
> business major and vice-chairman of Temple's College Republicans,
> also read anecdotes from anonymous students he said feared
> retribution for testifying.
>
> But Adamany and a string of professors repeatedly defended the
> university's professional standards and its grievance policies during
> testimony, with Adamany telling legislators that in more than five
> years as president he has not received a single student complaint
> alleging "inappropriate political advocacy by teachers in their
> courses."
>
> "Nor have we found instances of complaints by students that they were
> improperly graded because of the views they set forth in their
> courses," Adamany said. "Further, I am not aware of any similar
> complaints by any member of Temple's faculty or administration."
>
> Although Fisher said he believed his grades have been affected
> because his in-class comments challenged professors, he too said
> neither he nor his friends have ever formally filed a complaint with
> the university, "for the fact that I didn't think they would be
> handled at all."
>
> During Adamany's testimony, which led off the hearings, he said "if
> we were aware of such complaints, we would certainly act on them
> promptly" and asked any aggrieved students, if they were willing, "to
> come forward and give us information."
>
> Though Adamany repeatedly defended the university's policies and
> emphasized the lack of student complaints, he did tell legislators
> that Temple could improve its academic freedom and grievance policies
> in three ways: by better directing students to academic freedom
> guidelines, by informing students of their rights to appeal what they
> think is biased teaching, and by possibly synthesizing grievance
> policies that can vary among Temple's colleges.
>
> "A student probably should not be required to master different sets
> of grievance procedures in order to assure his or her rights in
> different academic programs," Adamany said.
>
> Up Next
>
> The committee, which has also held testimony in Harrisburg and at the
> University of Pittsburgh, will travel to central Pennsylvania for two
> more hearings before May. The committee must then present its
> findings to the state House before a Nov. 30 deadline. Pennsylvania
> is the first state to form such a committee, though nearly 20 other
> states have considered similar action.
>
> Editor's note: Portions of this article were taken from online
> reports by Brandon Lausch and Venuri Siriwardane, which were posted
> at www.temple-news.com following each day's testimony. To view those
> articles, click on the "Archives" link on the Web site's main page to
> access the Jan. 8 issue.
>
>   from Brian Shannon
>
>
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