One
cant help but wonder if such one-sided education prepares
students for the world outside the comfortable confines of the college
campus.
|
Is a Little Intellectual Diversity
Too Much to Ask?
By
Erin Murphy
A
life-size photography exhibit put on display this week depicts a
George W. Bush look-alike in a drunken stupor fondling a womans
breasts. The artist described it as symbolizing the Presidents
"imperial infidelity," for whatever thats worth.
As fascinating as it is that this is someones version of art,
even more puzzling is who would display such an exhibit. Of course,
once The New York Times and The New Yorker had the
good sense to refuse, the artist had only one place left to turn:
academia. Sure enough, the exhibit found a home on the walls of
Lehigh Universitys political science department, with the
approval of administration and faculty alike.
Compare
this with an occurrence at California Polytechnic State University,
where a little over a year ago a student attempted to post a flier
in the campus multicultural center advertising an upcoming speech
by a black author. The flier contained the speakers name and
picture, the time and place of the speech, and the name of the speakers
book, which argues that African-Americans are too dependent on government
programs. Students at the multicultural center asked the student
to leave their public campus space, then called campus police and
complained of "a suspicious white male passing out literature
of an offensive racial nature." The student was forbidden to
post his flier and forced to apologize for his monumental offense
to the multicultural students.
Thus
is the wonder of the world of higher education, where portraying
a President in compromising sexual positions is considered to advance
political discourse, but suggesting that minority students come
hear another point of view is grounds for police action. Only high
inside the ivory towers of academia, the breeding grounds for those
to the left of left, could such logic exist.
College
students love to complain about how campuses are removed from "reality,"
which is generally defined as living in subsidized housing, sleeping
on a park bench, or working in a makeshift medical clinic in Africa.
But these same students seem completely oblivious to how far removed
their campuses are from the rest of the nations political
discourse. In the country as a whole, Democrats and Republicans
are almost evenly split, but studies indicate that academic faculties
are often skewed at least 10 to 1 in Democrats favor. My law
schools faculty of more than 100 includes only one registered
Republican. On many campuses, students are more likely to find a
Marxist professor than a conservative professor. Its not unusual
to hear a professor assert that Ronald Reagan systematically and
deliberately spread AIDS to homosexuals, or that George W. Bush
is not legitimately our president; many professors at my law school
quite convincingly contend there is no such thing as a free-market
economy and that law itself is completely indeterminate.
The
most disturbing aspect of this phenomenon is how students on both
sides of the political spectrum most paying astronomical
tuition are being shortchanged. Schools often structure their
curricula around professors specialties; thus when liberal
thought is so drastically overrepresented, it is bound to overshadow
necessary curricula. During most of my terms as an undergraduate,
the journalism school I attended offered at least three advanced
courses on race, poverty, gender or the evils of the death penalty,
but not a single class on editorial writing.
Although
many classes attempt to examine issues from both sides, conservative
arguments are bound to be less convincing when rarely advanced by
anyone who believes them. This is regrettable for both conservative
and liberal students for conservatives because they are not
taught the most defensible form of their arguments and for liberals
because their own views are not adequately challenged. Sure, students
can make an effort to push the envelope themselves, but shouldnt
the bulk of that burden belong on the faculty? After all, they are
the ones paid to foster diversity of thought.
Professors
with a point of view are not incapable of teaching two sides of
an issue in my experience, many do a remarkable job. But
not all professors are so open-minded; some blatantly intend to
inculcate students with their political views. For example, last
year a Citrus College professor required students to write anti-war
letters to President Bush, and a Colorado professor asked students
to write an essay explaining why the President was a war criminal.
Students who refused or expressed different opinions received no
credit. Sometimes professors offer such assignments for extra credit,
but is that really a proper option those who think like me
get extra credit, and those who dont, please keep it to yourself?
Maybe
one Berkeley professor had it right in adding to a course description:
"conservative thinkers are encouraged to seek other sections."
Although the professor later apologized, one can almost appreciate
the initial honesty in admitting up front that a course is designed
in furtherance of a professors point of view. Perhaps some
schools should follow suit and footnote this disclaimer on their
standard-issue mission statements professing life-long pursuit of
intellectual freedom and diversity. Then at least students could
weed out the schools that had no intention of fostering conservative
thought.
One
cant help but wonder if such one-sided education prepares
students for the world outside the comfortable confines of the college
campus. The cold harsh truth is that, as deluded as professors may
consider them, most Americans accept that George W. Bush is our
constitutionally elected President, that Ronald Reagan was not trying
to kill off homosexuals, and that we need to fight terrorism. Hopefully,
most students understand this and take professors personal
mantras to the contrary with a grain of salt. For those who dont,
graduation and the working world are going to be quite a culture
shock. But then, if reality is a little too much to face, they can
always seek jobs in academia.
Erin
Murphy is a Contributing Editor with the Center for Individual Freedom.
She is also a law student at the Georgetown University Law Center.
[Posted
February 5, 2004]
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