Point/Counterpoint
Time for action
The rights of conservatives in academia must be protected
By Alisa Farenzena
From the April 2005 Print Edition
When conservative activist David Horowitz spoke on campus earlier this semester, he discussed the merits of the Academic Bill of Rights. The Bill, which Horowitz authored, has eight provisions designed to protect professors and students from political discrimination and indoctrination. State legislatures and university boards must realize the necessity of the Academic Bill of Rights and work to ratify it.
The first two provisions of the Bill prevent faculty from being “hired or fired or denied promotion or tenure,” or excluded from “search and hiring committees on the basis of their political or religious beliefs.” Stamping out this type of discrimination is crucial since liberal professors may achieve a complete monopoly over academic discourse by eliminating conservatives from their departments.
It is absurd that these two provisions face any resistance. We always recognize an issue of discrimination in hiring against minorities or women as an affront to fairness, so why should ideology be any different?
The third provision of the document protects students, stating that they “will be graded solely on the basis of their reasoned answers and appropriate knowledge of the subjects and disciplines they study.” This is simply a call for proper grading — reflecting the student’s understanding of a subject, rather than penalizing the student for not sharing a professor’s Marxist or anti-Israeli views.
This notion has special significance during an age when the buzzword in education is “diversity.” With all the talk of simple racial diversity adding unique viewpoints to classroom discussion, we must realize that there is no meaningful discourse without intellectual diversity. Students with different views need the ability to speak freely without fearing retribution at grading time.
The Bill’s seventh provision expands the call for intellectual diversity beyond the classroom. It states that “the obstruction of invited campus speakers, destruction of campus literature, or other effort to obstruct this exchange will not be tolerated.” The civil exchange of ideas is certainly a challenge at Cal, as anyone who witnessed the deplorable behavior at last semester’s Michelle Malkin speaking event can attest to.
Academic freedom and intellectual diversity face tremendous odds at universities nationwide. The Academic Bill of Rights is the first step toward achieving these noble goals. Legislatures and university boards must take an objective look at the document and see that it simply protects fundamental rights: freedom of speech and freedom from discrimination.
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