Posted on 05/13/2008 5:41:58 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Help Wanted: Lefty College Seeks Right-Wing Prof CU-Boulder Bid to Endow A 'Conservative' Chair Leaves Both Sides Uneasy By STEPHANIE SIMON May 13, 2008; Page A1
BOULDER, Colo. -- How liberal is the University of Colorado at Boulder?
The campus hot-dog stand sells tofu wieners. A recent pro-marijuana rally drew a crowd of 10,000, roughly a third the size of the student body. And according to one professor's analysis of voter registration, the 800-strong faculty includes just 32 Republicans.
Chancellor G.P. "Bud" Peterson surveys this landscape with unease. A college that champions diversity, he believes, must think beyond courses in gay literature, Chicano studies and feminist theory. "We should also talk about intellectual diversity," he says. So over the next year, Mr. Peterson plans to raise $9 million to create an endowed chair for what is thought to be the nation's first Professor of Conservative Thought and Policy.
Mr. Peterson's quest has been greeted with protests from some faculty and students, who say the move is too -- well, radical. "Why set aside money specifically for a conservative?" asks Curtis Bell, a teaching assistant in political science. "I'd rather see a quality academic than someone paid to have a particular perspective."
Even some conservatives who have long pushed for balance in academia voice qualms. Among them is David Horowitz, a conservative agitator whose book "The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America" includes two Boulder faculty members: an associate professor of ethnic studies who writes about the intersection of Chicano and lesbian issues, and a philosophy professor focused on feminist politics and "global gender justice."
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Excellent point. Most serious students wont take these useless multi-culti courses unless forced to and the nitwits that actually want to take them are just along for the ride anyway. The only reason they exist at all is that the Marxists in charge force students to take at least two or three of them during a four year program.
I see that in his previous job Peterson increased the diversity by hiring more women and minorities. That gives him a platform to try to increase the diversity of thought on the CU campus. You’re right. He is probably a good guy, trying to do the right thing. I’m not sure if this is the best way, but at least he is trying. BTW, did you notice how the Lib profs want to control who is appointed to that chair? Their definition of a “Conservative”, at best, would be a RINO. Lincoln Chaffee would be exactly who they would want. I’d rather give them Thomas Sowell.
and to balance out the 800 to 32 libs vs conservatives now on roster
and
“I'd rather see a quality academic...”
- “a” academic, like in ONE - making it 800 to 33. Just WOW. That would certainly constitute a balance, in lib-mind. A giant step for diversity
True, but there would be little scope for such Marxist requirements in a truly competitive college market.
That bubble is very likely to burst, in spite of its having been propped up by government subsidies. The growth of college costs has been much higher than inflation and economic growth, and is now outstripping the inclination of governments to fund it. And the domestic pool of students is just about tapped out.
Because "diversity" is a code-word for non-white Christian male. Just like African American, is a code-word for someone who is dark-skinned. They could be from the Caribbean living in France, but PC language still has to use the code-word.
I don't think that's necessarily the case if I understand Peterson's motives correctly. But it isn't so much the conservative canon that is lacking but the fact that every single topic that can possibly be illuminated though the lens of liberal politics, is so, and it makes a very great deal of difference to one's education if one is constantly having to battle one's way up an ideological torrent like a spawning salmon.
Take the topic of Forestry, for example. This nominally apolitical field of study has been intensely politicized to its considerable detriment (one local university has announced it is dropping a decades-old program altogether). It should be noted that those doing the politicization are not matriculants of the program but inhabitants of other fields of study whose focus is, naturally enough, on politics. Who cares what a sociology or political science major thinks about forestry, anyway? Well, obviously they do, and given sufficient ideological leverage within a faculty, it counts.
That isn't really the sort of thing that is going to be addressed by keeping a pet conservative in a cage. Why a mathematics major should be made to feel guilty by the Gender Studies department about the disparity in distribution in sex within his fellow students is a bit of a mystery. Worse is the insistence that it reflects a disparity in the very science itself, to be addressed by (what a surprise) funding and curriculum changes that favor a presumably oppressed class which - mirabile dictu! - happens to populate the Gender Studies department. This within a field that is perhaps the most inherently immune from politics of all. The rot has gotten that far.
Most observers of academia labor under the fond illusion that the choice between astronomy and astrology, chemistry and alchemy, was made centuries ago and that there is no turning back. Unfortunately turning that back appears to be the holy grail of notably radical members of the social sciences and liberal arts faculties, and it is not only the students who will suffer but learning itself. IMHO.
Come to think of it, the Red Lion Inn is good, they have lots of game dishes too. They’re a small part of the way up towards Nederland, I think that’s Canyon.
We also like Sugarbeet (Longmont) and The Wayside Inn (Berthoud). Longmont used to have Hunter’s, they closed, and there is also Martini’s Bistro, which has great food but very slow service several times in a row now.
To add to that, if I am correct LBJ banned LSD during his Administration.
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