Posted on 03/03/2005 3:05:28 PM PST by Tamar1973
Santa Rosa Junior College's oak-studded campus is aflame with controversy triggered by the anonymous posting of red stars and a reference to communist indoctrination on 10 faculty office doors.
Instructors quickly saw the action as a threat to academic freedom, but the student who claimed credit for the protest said it was about left-leaning bias in the lecture hall.
The stars, which unnerved some instructors, were accompanied by a copy of a state Education Code section prohibiting the teaching of communism with the "intent to indoctrinate" students.
"It makes me a little anxious," philosophy instructor Michael Aparicio said.
Ed Buckley, the college's vice president of academic affairs, weighed in with a defense of academic freedom, saying in an e-mail to SRJC faculty that it includes teaching "difficult and controversial material."
But political science major Molly McPherson of Rohnert Park said she had only intended to start a discussion about the personal politics of SRJC humanities instructors by posting the stars.
"It's a big issue," said McPherson, president of the SRJC Republicans, a campus club. "The opinion of the far left is presented as fact, with no alternative."
Some students fear their grades will suffer if they express a contrary view, she said.
The red stars were not intended as a personal attack on individual instructors, she said. "I regret that it was taken that way."
German instructor Sylvia Wasson, said her colleagues were "overreacting" in a flurry of e-mails exchanged on campus since the stars and code citation were discovered on the doors in Emeritus Hall on Friday morning.
Wasson, who had McPherson in four German classes, described her as an A student, a "very bright woman" and a "critical thinker who happens to belong to the wrong party on campus."
Aparicio and others said they found McPherson's tactics "sensationalist," intended to get media attention.
When faculty members called a news conference to discuss the stars, McPherson came forward to acknowledge her action on behalf of the SRJC Republicans, a 75-member chapter of the California College Republicans, a statewide group.
SRJC's Academic Senate is scheduled to discuss the matter at 3:15 p.m. today in the Dyle Student Center and may start a move to repeal the Education Code section cited by the student Republicans, said George Freund, a philosophy instructor.
Faculty members were outraged by the stealthy posting and surprised to find the code prohibition on the advocacy of communism, he said.
The code's first sentence says: "No teacher giving instruction in any school ... shall advocate or teach communism with the intent to indoctrinate or to inculcate in the mind of any pupil a preference for communism."
"You can't teach social theory without teaching Marxism," Freund said. In all his lectures, Freund said he covers "the best argument for and against" any philosophy.
Marco Giordano, an English instructor, called the code section "antithetical to academic freedom."
"The accusation of teaching communism in the classroom is laughable," Giordano said, noting communism is not illegal and the U.S. Constitution is "indifferent" to both communism and capitalism.
Still, he said, the student Republican's actions were "a little creepy" and a "revival of McCarthyist tactics."
Buckley called the protest "an unhelpful way to express their dissatisfaction" with instructors.
McPherson said the Republicans hope to hold a public forum on the issue. "One-sided education is indoctrination," she said.
Give it up, Ed. Your cover's blown!
No one believes your double-talk, anyway. If the standard were just some merely 'difficult and controversial', you'd be teaching that the earth is flat, and how bumps on people's head can help determine whether or not they are fit for service in the SS castle on the hill.
Along with communism, you'd teaching other tyranny, too. And you'd teach anti-communism, which I doubt you do - but really should!
Ed, no one's buying it, anymore. Give it up. If you want 'controversial' - then hold classes on the writings of Tolkien or 'Jack' Chesterton. If you want difficult, get into Tolkien's appendices. If you want more controvery, get Solberg's Debates and start teaching what happened when the country was founded. If you want complicated, try the Federalist Papers. If you want more 'controversy', consider the critics of the Court and 'judicial review', and so on, when you teach intro to Constitutional Law, assuming you do. And so on.
But don't try to con people, Ed. You're only conning yourself.
Communism SHOULD BE illegal. And the Constitution is very clear. Private property, even to the extent that too many early ratifiers were willing to set the stage for war by claiming that people were property. Representative, unlike Commie dictatorships. Checks and balances, unlike Commie tyrannies of rigged courts, rubber stamp assemblies, and armies of Gestapo and secret police. Etc.
Perhaps this guy would run screaming from the room if someone pointed out something so obvious - NAH- NAH - I'M NOT HEARRRRRING YOU! AAAAH! And then he'd turn at the door, and Gollum-like, hiss and sneer, Racccissssst! Homophobe! I'll get you my . . etc.
I could be wrong. I wonder, though, if the kids going to this unfortunate backwater don't have such nightmares as they anticipate this guy's next quiz, and the basis or standard for his grading? I don't know.
"Brenda Flyswithhawks, a psychology instructor, went further, calling for disciplinary action against students Molly McPherson and Danielle Carter for allegedly creating "an environment of hostility" with the postings."
Seems Ms. McPherson saw it as a "hostile teaching environment" before she put up the postings and decided to do something about it?
Great - glad to hear it!!!!!!!
The Constitution of the United States
Article IV, Section 4:
The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.
Excellent. Communism should never go unchallenged.
Good for her! The protest is definitely encouraging news.
I really like the idea of pasting stars on their doors.
Its so, slap you back.
A hit dog howls. These jerks cry like babies when confronted by a law against indoctrinating their students in communism. That tells you everything you need to know about higher education these days. Good for these students who are paying huge bills and getting treated like dirt by these 60s leftovers.
I just consider them "truth in advertising".
Sounds like the perfessers are intent on defending the notion that should have the right to indoctrinate students. Is this a public college, getting govt money>
Santa Rosa Jr College ... Hmmmmm? I don't know
Yes it is and it's probably getting a lot more than it deserves.
51530. No teacher giving instruction in any school, or on any
property belonging to any agencies included in the public school
system, shall advocate or teach communism with the intent to
indoctrinate or to inculcate in the mind of any pupil a preference
for communism.
In prohibiting the advocacy or teaching of communism with the
intent of indoctrinating or inculcating a preference in the mind of
any pupil for such doctrine, the Legislature does not intend to
prevent the teaching of the facts about communism. Rather, the
Legislature intends to prevent the advocacy of, or inculcation and
indoctrination into, communism as is hereinafter defined, for the
purpose of undermining patriotism for, and the belief in, the
government of the United States and of this state.
For the purposes of this section, communism is a political theory
that the presently existing form of government of the United States
or of this state should be changed, by force, violence, or other
unconstitutional means, to a totalitarian dictatorship which is based
on the principles of communism as expounded by Marx, Lenin, and
Stalin.
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