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Why Professors Object to Being Recorded
Townhall.com ^ | February 21, 2017 | Dennis Prager

Posted on 02/21/2017 4:19:07 AM PST by Kaslin

After the election of Donald Trump as president, a professor at Orange Coast College in California, Olga Perez Stable Cox, went into an extended hate-rant against the president-elect. Among other things, she described the Trump election as an “act of terrorism,” labelled him a “white supremacist” and called Vice-President-Elect Mike Pence “one of the most anti-gay humans in this country.”

And this wasn’t even a political science class in which one might expect political talk, no matter how irresponsible. Stable Cox is a professor of human sexuality.

When a student who recorded the diatribe posted the recording on social media, the professor’s union, the Coast Federation of Educators, AFT local chapter 1911, posted this message on Facebook:

“This is an illegal recording without the permission of the instructor. The student will be identified and may be facing legal action.”

According to the union, the recording, “violate[s] the professor's course syllabus, the Coast Community College District Code of Student Conduct, and the California Educational Code, section 78907, which exist to provide a robust, learning environment for all students irrespective of their opinions.”

The aforementioned California Educational Code states:

“The use by any person, including a student, of any electronic listening or recording device in any classroom without the prior consent of the instructor is prohibited. . . .”

The American Association of University Professors has long opposed unauthorized recording and public posting of what professors say in classrooms.

As it happens, I was a college teacher for two years at Brooklyn College. I recall students asking me if they could record my lectures. And I remember thinking, “Why on earth would I say no?”

I wanted whatever I said in a classroom to be heard by more than 50 people. “Who wouldn’t?” I wondered.

Here, then, is my theory as to why most professors who object to their class lectures being recorded do so:

They fear having what they say exposed to the general public.

Our colleges, universities, (and an increasing number of high schools and elementary schools) have been transformed from educational institutions into indoctrination institutions. With the left-wing takeover of universities, their primary aim has become graduating as many leftists as possible.

The vast majority of our colleges have become left-wing seminaries. Just as Christian seminaries exist to produce committed Christians, Western universities exist to produce committed leftists. Aside from the Christian-Leftism difference, universities differ in only one respect from Christian seminaries. Christian seminaries admit their goal, whereas the universities deceive the public about theirs.

Thus, in the “social sciences” – disciplines outside the natural sciences and math – a large number of college teachers inject their politics into their classrooms. And if they are recorded, the general public will become aware of just how politicized their classroom lectures are.

But there is another reason.

Most professors objecting to being recorded know on some level that they are persuasive only when their audience is composed largely of very young people just out of high school. They know that if their ideas are exposed to adults, they may be revealed as intellectual lightweights.

Students, therefore need to understand that when their professor objects to being recorded, it is a statement of contempt for them. The professor is, in effect, saying to his or her students:

“Listen, I can get away with this intellectually shallow, emotion-based, propaganda when you are the only people who actually hear it. You aren’t wise enough to perceive it as such. But if enough people over 21 years of age hear it, I’m toast.”

If a professor meets privately with a student, all rules governing the recording of conversations without permission should apply.

But when a professor stands in front of a class, he or she is in the public domain. Moreover, the public is paying at least part of this professor’s salary at virtually every university. We therefore have a right and even a duty to know what professors say publicly in classrooms.

In fact, I would encourage every student who cares about truth and intellectual honesty to record what their professors say in class. I would also encourage every parent to find out what they are paying for. And I would likewise encourage professors to record themselves in order to protect themselves against doctored material.

Any professor who is not ashamed of what he or she is saying in class should welcome being recorded.

And any student taking a class with a professor who objects to being recorded should know that this objection is almost always equivalent to the professor saying: “I want you to hear what I say in class, because I’m quite confident that you can’t differentiate between instruction and indoctrination. But if what I say goes public, people who do know the difference will expose me as a propagandist.”


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: academicbias; collegesandunis; education; indoctrination; monitorclassrooms; recordclassrooms
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1 posted on 02/21/2017 4:19:07 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

>> Stable Cox is a professor of human sexuality.

Seriously?

Maybe not so stable.


2 posted on 02/21/2017 4:25:00 AM PST by generally ( Don't be stupid. We have politicians for that.)
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To: Kaslin

Here, then, is my theory as to why most professors who object to their class lectures being recorded do so:

They fear having what they say exposed to the general public.


Rats flee when exposed to daylight.


3 posted on 02/21/2017 4:26:24 AM PST by Flick Lives
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To: Kaslin
No one ever records my lectures although they're perfectly welcome to.

I suppose listening to my lame jokes once is enough.

4 posted on 02/21/2017 4:27:32 AM PST by billorites (freepo ergo sum)
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To: Kaslin

“Stabile” Cox? ? ?

Is this a joke, or where her parents determined to add a little humor to the world for decades?


5 posted on 02/21/2017 4:28:27 AM PST by GladesGuru (Islam Delenda Est. Because of what Islam is - and because of what Muslims do.)
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To: Flick Lives

or, why pay money to go to college if all the lectures are available for free on the web?

Why buy a book when there is a Kindle edition on the web for free?


6 posted on 02/21/2017 4:28:45 AM PST by bert (K.E.; N.P.; GOPc;WASP .... Macroagression melts snowflakes)
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To: Kaslin
With all the devices in student hands that can record sound, banning recording is a losing battle for the leftists. We just more students willing to stand up to them. Maybe a legal defense fund it what it needed.
7 posted on 02/21/2017 4:29:19 AM PST by beef (Who Killed Kennewick Man?)
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To: GladesGuru

Sorry for the spelling error, but I was typing while enjoying my morning coffee and breakfast.


8 posted on 02/21/2017 4:29:50 AM PST by GladesGuru (Islam Delenda Est. Because of what Islam is - and because of what Muslims do.)
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To: generally
"Stable Cox is a professor of human sexuality."

Oh, yes. And the progenitor of Fudd's Law: If you push something hard enough it will fall over.

9 posted on 02/21/2017 4:31:46 AM PST by billorites (freepo ergo sum)
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To: bert

You are paying for the diploma, without which you will not be hired by any company for certain jobs.

If your goal is to be a Starbucks barista, save the money and listen to the recordings.


10 posted on 02/21/2017 4:33:24 AM PST by PTBAA
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To: billorites

He discovered it on Wednesday.


11 posted on 02/21/2017 4:35:05 AM PST by Mr. Douglas (Best. Election. EVER!)
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To: Kaslin

They forget the reality of the smartphones.


12 posted on 02/21/2017 4:35:46 AM PST by Biggirl ("One Lord, one faith, one baptism" - Ephesians 4:5)
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To: Kaslin

Back in the 70s many of my college students recorded my lectures. My lecture lab table often had several recorders on it. Students shared the tapes in their study groups. One day I prerecorded a lecture. Walked in the classroom and the students got up and placed and turned on their recorders and I placed my recorder on the table and turned it on play to play my recorded lecture. We all then went over the student center and got something to eat. I later video my lectures and placed them in the library for students to review. Times have changed.


13 posted on 02/21/2017 4:36:38 AM PST by DOC44 (Have gun will travel.)
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To: billorites

And don’t forget Testicle’s Deviant: “Half of what goes in here must come out there”


14 posted on 02/21/2017 4:37:10 AM PST by Mr. Douglas (Best. Election. EVER!)
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To: bert
or, why pay money to go to college if all the lectures are available for free on the web?

Because most students are far more interested in the degree than the knowledge.

You can check a book out of the library to gain knowledge.

Even thirty years ago when I was in school at a rather conservative university, the human sexuality class was nothing more than the university peddling porn.

15 posted on 02/21/2017 4:37:32 AM PST by hopespringseternal
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To: All

If it’s a public University then too bad, right?


16 posted on 02/21/2017 4:39:23 AM PST by Maverick68
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To: Kaslin
IMO, every classroom in a tax-funded institution should be equipped with two cameras, one in the rear of the room focused on the teacher's area, and one in the front of the room focused on the class area. Both should be networked and access available over the interned, either to the general public, or by password to parents of students, and education supervisors.

This would quickly cut down on this sort of liberal crap, AND improve student discipline.

17 posted on 02/21/2017 4:40:49 AM PST by Wonder Warthog (The Hog of Steel and NRA Life Member)
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To: Kaslin
The American Association of University Professors has long opposed unauthorized recording and public posting of what professors say in classrooms.

For a group of people so quick to take to the streets in protest against the establishment, I suggest that these students disregard the legal threats and continue to record and post their professor's comments in the name of civil disobedience.

If it's good enough for the goose, it's good enough for the gander.

-PJ

18 posted on 02/21/2017 4:43:11 AM PST by Political Junkie Too (1st Amendment gives the People the right to a free press, not CNN the right to the first question.)
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To: Mr. Douglas

“........their primary aim has become graduating as many leftists as possible.”..........

“Legalized brainwashing” has been their objective for a very, very, very, very, very, very long time. With rules like this article describes, they are well on their way to achieving that objective. Anyone now question why the NEA and their ilk need to be dissolved?


19 posted on 02/21/2017 4:44:11 AM PST by DaveA37
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To: Maverick68

When I was in graduate school (after the dinosaurs ceased roaming the earth but before smart phones) the table in front of the lecturer was covered in a mass of recorders.


20 posted on 02/21/2017 4:44:34 AM PST by School of Rational Thought
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