Posted on 01/19/2006 3:39:57 PM PST by Aussie Dasher
PHILADELPHIA Christian DeJohn returned from a National Guard tour in Bosnia only to fight his own war with academics at Temple University who he says have held up his master's thesis because of political conflicts in the classroom.To some conservatives, the case represents a national trend by some liberal professors to infringe on conservative students' right to free speech at public colleges and universities.
The debate has reached more than a dozen state legislatures, which dole out the taxpayer funds to those schools, but so far there's been more talk than action.
Legislation modeled after an "academic bill of rights" advocated by conservative activist David Horowitz, founder of Students for Academic Freedom, was introduced in at least 15 states last year, but none has passed it, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Among other things, the document exhorts professors to present a wide spectrum of intellectual views in the classroom and discourages them from basing students' grades on their religious or political beliefs.
Julie Bell, the conference's education program director, said legislatures have not forced the issue because even public universities typically enjoy considerable autonomy in setting academic policies and procedures.
"Most legislatures have backed away because they really do acknowledge that separation," Bell said.
An Ohio state senator suspended his push for legislation last year after state universities approved a resolution requiring them to ensure students are not graded based on political opinions.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
One semester in college I took Political Science. We had the lecture class M W F at 8:50 AM and the discussion section at 7:35 two days a week.
There was this 50ish Union-brainwashed nutcase in my discussion class and every morning he would stand up, sing Clinton's praises and go on about the "damn Republicans and that g--damn Gingrich" (this was 1996) and one morning I had had it. The prof was actually fairly conservative, but the discussions usually leaned left as about 70% of the students who actually talked were libs.
I was in college, so cut me some slack here-I came to class hung over one morning and was NOT in the mood for liberal bellyaching. This guy stood up and started talking about something and said "see, I'm a Democrat..." and paused for a minute. Right at that moment, not even realizing what I said, I blurted out:
"Yeah...that's a real f**king surprise!! Next thing you know you're gonna tell us your a Yoon-Yun (emphasised) man too!" and then I snickered.
The entire class, even most of the libs and the professor, were ROLLING in laughter...
GREAT STORY!
Yeah, that was fun...
"Tyranny of Liberal Academia" ping list:
Fox was discussing this yesterday. I wonder when NPR get all huffy and jump in.
"PERCEIVED"! Now THAT'S a real knee-slapper!!!!!
"PERCEIVED"! Now THAT'S a real knee-slapper!!!!!
When I was in college in the late 70s, the faculty was markedly more conservative than the students.
(Rep. Dan Surra, a member of the Pennsylvania committee who has questioned the need for the investigation, said nothing so far has swayed him. Students in his rural district complain about such issues as tuition, but not about professors' biases, the Democrat said.
"I've said it's the educational equivalent of the hunt for Bigfoot," he said.)
I hope Democrats continue to be this condescending. It seems like Surra needs a swift kick administered by Big Foot.
Wow. That is sickening.
My freshman year 'Critical Thinking and Writing', I made the (bleeding heart) prof get watery eyes b/c of my views on poverty. (The situation we were discussing was a poor single mother with two kids from when she was young and a previous drug addiction).
After hearing the usual crap that people are poor from a 'run of bad luck' and its 'society's fault'. I debated that with her and won. She lost it though when I suggested it would be best for the hypothetical woman to put her children in temporary foster care until she was established with a steady job and could afford to take care of them. That was before I even became political, what she was saying is simply stupid and didn't make sense.
Even after making a bleeding heart, young female prof cry, I did fine in the class.
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