Posted on 04/18/2005 7:29:05 AM PDT by aynrandy
Six weeks ago, a teacher named Phil Mitchell reluctantly spoke to me about his unjust and forced exit from the history staff at the University of Colorado after 21 years in the classroom.
All the evidence, notwithstanding the tortured spin of CU and its defenders, was that Mitchell, a reliable and well-regarded instructor, was being "let go" because of conservative political and evangelical Christian beliefs.
Mitchell, who by the time I spoke with him was exploring job opportunities in more hospitable environs, decided to come forward with his complaints about the lack of diversity that hampered any true ideological debate.
He believed his story would ease the plight of other conservative teachers on campus. (Or wait, was it the other conservative teacher on campus? I forget.) And Mitchell was willing to tell anyone who would listen.
"When I told you to forward my number to everyone who called," Mitchell explained to me, "I didn't think everyone would call."
Within 48 hours, Mitchell appeared on "The O'Reilly Factor," MSNBC's "Scarborough Country," a dozen talk-radio shows and was the subject of numerous print interviews and stories.
Believe it or not, the heightened interest in Mitchell's plight wasn't spurred by my first-class writing abilities.
It was triggered by the growing resentment of roughly 51 percent of Americans whose ideas and beliefs are, at best, ignored and, at worst, mocked and discarded at universities across the country.
Why? The best reason offered yet was by Robert Brandon, chairman of the philosophy department at Duke University, who explained that he tries "to hire the best, smartest people available. If, as John Stuart Mill said, stupid people are generally conservative, then there are lots of conservatives we will never hire."
A pretty funny joke; even for an uptight lefty philosophy professor.
But, hey, we conservatives are trying our best to keep up.
We understand, for instance, it's accepted orthodoxy among the enlightened that conservatives are brainless hicks - you know, dummies who believe the teachings of genuine liberals such as Thomas Jefferson, Adam Smith, Edmund Burke, Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman are still relevant.
Mitchell, a dumb conservative who earned his Ph.D. at CU, was one of the speakers Friday at a committee hearing on higher education at the state Capitol that addressed many of these topics of academic freedom and tenure.
Committee hearings are usually about as interesting as watching slugs race - and about as productive. So I was pleasantly surprised by the thoughtful and informative speakers from both sides.
As for Mitchell, he has plenty of ideas about changing the way CU works and believes the first step in the rehabilitation of any university is acknowledging there is a problem.
"The leadership in higher education has to confess," explains Mitchell. "We have the least diversity in the place it matters most - ideas."
He believes it is necessary to establish independent, competitive departments and to end faculty self-governance - which, this committee hearing uncovered, is the only governance there really.
Mitchell believes it will take affirmative action to restore ideological balance. And he believes this can only be accomplished by adding the word "political" to campus diversity statements.
Mitchell's finest suggestion, however, is certainly not a new one: Give state higher-ed funding directly to students in the form of vouchers and let them choose whether they want to attend a college that employs a Ward Churchill or a Phil Mitchell.
If CU ever had to fight for their dollars, you'd see Thomas Sowell, Victor Davis Hanson and the entire editorial staff of the Weekly Standard named visiting professors quicker than you could say the words "academic freedom."
Now that's a school I could support.
David Harsanyi's column appears Monday and Thursday. He can be reached at 303-820-1255 or dharsanyi@denverpost.com.
Give state higher-ed funding directly to students in the form of vouchers and let them choose whether they want to attend a college that employs a Ward Churchill or a Phil Mitchell.
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We have been waiting for a long time for vouchers. Put loser liberal academia out of business, by empowering parents to send their kids to GOOD schools to be educated, not INDOCTRINATED. If the state governments will just do it, it could be a major upside for all levels of education. Show the libs they no longer have a rat-hole to hide in...
CU is a write-off.
I'm afraid you're right. I really believe that they are just stalling on the Ward Churchill issue, hoping that the rest of the country will lose interest in him and they will be able to coast along as usual. In the meantime, the faux Native American is raking in the big bucks with numerous speaking jobs.
It bothers me that there is no mention of the man's real academic qualifications. Even in history (which is my field) politics does not belong in the classroom. What is necessary is recognition that historical interpretation has been influenced by Marxist dialectical materialism and especially by multiculturalism both of which provide a limited and skewed view of the past. However, hiring people who are not comeptitive in their training and scholarly output is wrong and inexcusable. If this man was an instructor, he probably does not have a PhD.
He does.
Mitchell, a dumb conservative who earned his Ph.D. at CU,....
Do you know the specifics of this case? The article is very vague on just why the professor lost his job. I'm very interested in this topic but this is the first I've heard of this situation. Thanks.
Here is the original story:
A CU prof deserving of sympathy
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%257E31908%257E2748616,00.html
CU is a joke. Any resume that comes across my desk with a degree from CU will end up in the trash.
The article states that Mitchell received his Phd from CU.
Thanks for the link. What a disgraceful story. What a disgraceful university.
Ping
Check out post 9
He's been a highly evaluated instructor for 2 decades, when he applied, he was told by a collegue that "Conservatives should be rounded up and put in concentration camps". These were his own words on FOX several weeks ago.
You seem to be very smug in defending the criteria at today's so-called colleges, including CU. Personnaly, if a CU grad approached me for work (I hired many recently graduated in my lifetime), I would NOT hire the job prospect based solely on the fact that he attended CU. There are many more qualified, hard-working candidates who deserve an oppotunity for employment.
I actually found that hiring grads with a work history during their undergraduate years is a better roll of the dice than hiring somebody who "went away for 4 years" on mommy and daddy's dime. Much, much more mature workers.
some universities do not hire their own graduates.
the idea is similar to not marrying your brother or sister.
however, there are some exceptions to the rule. and, no doubt liberals and radicals haven't the problems this guy has.
his problems are:
he's a white male, christian, and on the new democrat plantation that's b-a-d.
"Mitchell believes it will take affirmative action to restore ideological balance. And he believes this can only be accomplished by adding the word "political" to campus diversity statements. "
Would reading comprehension be a significant aspect of competitiveness? The article stated he had a Ph.D.
You gotta be competitive in input before you can be competitive in "scholarly output", I bet. Or, these days, probably not ....
The unstated rule everywhere is that you do not teach at the institution where you got your degree. So even though he had a Ph.D., he had no chance ever of being tenure track there at CU. A real question is why this guy never went on the job market.
For decades, it's been understood that to prevent "inbreeding," you do not hire your own grads.
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