Firing casts shadow on CU diversity

Denver Post ^ | 05/07/2007 | David Harsanyi

[george76]

A couple of years back, the University of Colorado forged a nonbinding agreement with legislators, promising to protect and nurture ideological diversity on campus.

In fact, it was only last month that CU president Hank Brown expressed his apprehension to regents about the lack of movement on this front.

Well, if Brown is serious about this endeavor, he should make it a priority to investigate the firing of social conservative CU instructor Phil Mitchell - and not for the reasons you may suspect.

Mitchell, whose plight I first wrote about two years ago, believes that publicity surrounding CU's initial attempt to fire him saved his job.

But now, CU is giving Mitchell the boot after more than 20 years on the job in Boulder. And the university isn't backing down.

Mitchell, a father of nine, is a sharp, pleasant and generous man.

It's hard not to like him.

He's also a devout Christian who alleges that CU's actions are a transparent case of political and religious discrimination against a social conservative.

For a school still in the process of rehabilitating a somewhat rickety image, these charges should be taken seriously.

Sure, if CU featured more political flavors on the faculty, few would have any reason to wonder why administrators fired one of the few right-wing faculty members on campus.

[LS]

Well, it's rare for a guy who is truly competitive as a teacher AND researcher to be teaching at a Juco. No offense---I personally taught high school with a Ph.D. for a year---but most people get the Ph.D. for one reason, to teach in a university.

So I'm guessing this guy is an instructor on a year-to-year contract. That said, there appears to be no obvious way he has broken any rules or not performed his contract.

[george76]

CU seems to be bending all the rules to get Ward in and paid because he is pc ...then doing the opposite for someone who is not pc.

For me : this is not only sad for this Phd teacher and his family...but also sad for the university and America that they can not handle two points of view.

[LS]

Oops. Sorry, got my wires crossed. There is another case that was on my mind about a JUNIOR COLLEGE instructor let go because he e-mailed Washington’s “Thanksgiving Address” to his students. He is appealing it.

[george76]

Thanks.

I saw the Geo Washington thread too.

I am still amazed that so many professors ( now ) seem to be afraid to debate multiple points of view.

And amazed that so many professors will defend Ward after all the fabrication and forgery in his work.

I guess that they care little for open debates...rather they seem to care about their pay checks, benefits, and retirement plans.

I did not notice this so much when I was in school. Maybe I was deaf and blind then...or perhaps I am missing something today ?

[LS]

It's not so much that individual profs are afraid---we have a lot of individuals (on both sides) who are pretty fair, apolitical in class. But the SYSTEM makes it so that virtually ALL of the speakers and programs on campus feature leftists and left-leaning topics---"global warming," "katrina," blah, blah. In fairness, I've been invited to be on many panels, and I refuse, because it's always 3:1 or 4:1 debating a leftist topic.

Instead, we've made an "end run" through a financial backer and alumni who has given money specifically to bring conservative speakers to campus OUTSIDE the traditional "speaker's series." Last year we brought in Prof. William Allen, a specialist on George Washington, who gave a great talk to a packed house. We are working on getting Victor Davis Hanson here in spring of 08.

Half the problem is the leftist administration and bureaucracy of many of these universities---it's not all the profs. The "initiatives" and "new programs" almost all have a leftist bent to them, so they are stacked from the beginning. I'm not saying 80% of profs (or more) aren't leftists, but without the STRUCTURAL pressure from the administrators, the typical university campus would be substantially less Marxist than it is today.

[george76]

Thank you for woking so hard at this.

Hopefully CU can make some progress with Brown still there . He leaves soon.

Parts of the campus is excellent : Engineering, Business, and other students are well served apparently. I know some students there who have excellent professors.

There are these pc areas that are the problem.

[LS]

Typically, most campuses are about 50/50 Dem/Repub in the business school and in engineering, perhaps 60/40 in sciences. But in humanities, social sciences, and journalism, it’s 90/10 if that. (I saw one study of nine departments at Colorado that had only 10 out of 170 registered Republicans).

[Dumb_Ox]

Not even the College Republicans are social conservatives, or at least no leaders were when I was at the school a few years back.