Students For Academic Freedom

Penn State University Fields 13 Bias Claims · 26 January 2006

By Adam Smeltz--Centre Daily Times--01/25/06

UNIVERSITY PARK -- Penn State students statewide lodged 13 bias-related complaints against university faculty in the past five academic years, according to an administrator's compilation.

In the context of Penn State's entire faculty -- some 8,000 professors and instructors -- the complaints represent a relatively minor problem, Vice Provost Blannie Bowen said.

But "one instance is too many for me," said Bowen, who oversees academic affairs. "I'd prefer to have zero."

Bowen worked two months last year to prepare the compilation, responding to a request from the state House Subcommittee on Academic Freedom. The committee, formed after House Resolution 177 passed in July, is holding hearings across the state to investigate allegations of ideological bias at state-funded universities.

No hearings have been held at Penn State.

Supporters of Resolution 177, including state Rep. Kerry Benninghoff, R-College Township, have said they're only responding to student complaints about political intimidation and discrimination in college classrooms.

David Horowitz, a nationally known advocate of measures such as Resolution 177, said Tuesday that a goal is "to find out if (Penn State) is enforcing its own academic-freedom policy." In the classroom, university rules forbid professors from espousing controversial arguments unrelated to their course matter.

Horowitz suggested that violations of those rules may be underreported because students are largely unaware of the policy. Meanwhile, he said, "every student will be aware" of the university's rules about gender-based and racial discrimination.

Vicki Cangelosi, a student and the chairwoman of the College Republicans at Penn State, said the university doesn't do enough to tell students how to complain about professor misconduct.

"I have never seen any material put out by the university about where to go or who to talk to when their academic freedom has been violated," said Cangelosi, a senior.

She has "never been the victim of anything so drastic that it's worth reporting," though she witnessed an incident that was, she said.

Some complaints against Penn State that have gone before legislators were news to the university, Bowen said, because the students involved had not reported them. He said he would like to see Penn State put more emphasis on its policies and procedures for reporting violations of conduct rules.

"Our position is, we have policies in place," Bowen said. "We want to make sure students know that if you have a beef, you can complain."

He said a student with a grievance should first address the offending faculty member. The student can also report the problem to a department head or a dean, Bowen said.

His report shows that 11 of the 13 complaints were filed at University Park. The other two were filed at the Abington campus. No one faculty member was the subject of multiple complaints, and every incident was addressed and resolved, Bowen said.

Available details about the complaints are limited. One stemmed from a journalism class in which a student said a faculty member denigrated some political views. In a separate incident, a complainant alleged that a professor was too explicit in talking about a sexual practice.

One student said that a "conflict in values" adversely affected his or her grade. A Muslim student contended that a professor was against Islam. Another student said a faculty member was offering perspectives that were too conservative.

Michael Berube, a Penn State professor who has opposed legislative oversight of academia, said it's possible that students are underreporting professor violations of university code.

"But students also have a threshold tolerance," Berube said. "If they feel threatened, they're likely to make a complaint. If it's just a (faculty member) making comments about Bush or Iraq -- most students would shrug that off like Sean Penn's talking about Iraq. It's annoying to students, but it's not annoying to the point where they would file a grievance."

Berube and other professors have formed a Penn State chapter of the American Association of University Professors, largely in response to Resolution 177. Legislators' involvement opens the door "to all kinds of potential mischief," including violations of academic autonomy, Berube said.

And the Horowitz movement, he said, "certainly gives some students the motivation to think that they're encountering persecution simply by having a preponderance of liberal faculty members."

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