Academic lynching of Bruce Benson · 31 March 2008
When on Jan. 30, 2008, Bruce Benson was named the sole finalist for the presidency of the University of Colorado, academic hell broke loose, primarily because he had been chairman of the Colorado Republican Party.
Every day, the Colorado media voiced mostly critical opinions of his appointment. This was an unprecedented attack on a very able and successful private citizen with an unusual interest in public affairs, especially higher education.
In his voluntary appearances before the faculty and students in Boulder, Denver and Colorado Springs, the ritualistic liberals put Benson through a gauntlet. He was repeatedly asked impertinent questions about his personal life, which had nothing to do with his qualifications to be university president.
The pseudo-liberals, who normally insist on civil liberty and the dignity of citizens, treated him in a manner resembling Arthur Koestler’s Darkness at Noon. The media remained silent about this despicable treatment, as did the regents. Throughout this ordeal, Benson acted with great dignity. Finally, the Board of Regents by a majority vote appointed him president.
When the avalanche of criticism subsided, I decided to find out the reason for that humiliating behavior by a substantial segment of the CU community. Were the critics oppressed by the Republicans? Nobody’s judgment is better than his information. I, therefore, examined the 2007-08 CU Directory and the voter registration lists at county election offices.
Here are the pertinent findings:
CU administration
at Boulder
Administrators/Republicans
Chancellor’s Office 1/1
Provost/Vice Chancellor 12/1
College of Engineering &
Applied Science 5/2
College of Music 3/1
The following schools have no Republican administrators:
College of Architecture 3/0
College of Arts & Sciences 6/0
School of Business 4/0
School of Education 2/0
School of Journalism & Mass
Communication 3/0
School of Law 5/0
Total Administrators 44
Total Republicans 5
College of
Arts & Sciences
Department/No. of Republican Faculty
Anthropology 19/1
Art & Art History 27/2
Ecology & Evolutionary
Biology 28/1
Chemistry/Biochemistry 47/1
Economics 30/1
Film Studies 9/1
Geography 22/1
History 31/1
Physics 43/1
Political Science 25/2
Psychology 50/1
Sociology 24/2
Theater/Dance 16/1
The following departments in the College of Arts & Sciences have no Republican faculty:
Applied Mathematics 16/0
Astrophysics & Planetary
Sciences 26/0
Atmospheric & Oceanic
Sciences 21/0
MCD Biology 28/0
Classics 10/0
Comparative Literatures 3/0
English 46/0
Ethnic Studies 8/0
French/Italian 12/0Geological Sciences 28/0
Germanic/Slavic Languages/
Literatures 12/0
Integrative Physiology 22/0
Linguistics 7/0
Mathematics 28/0
Philosophy 22/0
Religious Studies 10/0
Spanish/Portuguese 13/0
Speech-Language 9/0
Other Schools
School of Business 52/4
School of Law 36/3
The following schools have no Republicans on the faculty:
School of Education
32/0
School of Journalism
21/0
Total: 823/23
The above data indicate that the critics of Bruce Benson had no justification for their attack on him. CU suffers from ideological incest.
What outrageous discrimination against Republicans in the bastion of ritualistic liberalism! Public universities receive their largesse from tuition, taxes, federal contracts and philanthropists. That money comes from Democrats, Republicans, Socialists and unaffiliated.
If the situation were reversed and the administration and faculty of CU were dominated by Republicans, is there any doubt what the Democrats would do in the media, in the state Legislature? Universities should not be dominated by any political party! All ideas of the modern world should be freely, objectively and rigorously discussed.
Students in the social sciences and humanities should receive an education based on pluralism in order to master the difference between right and wrong, good and evil, true and false, just and unjust. Those concepts will permeate their minds and souls. The university exists for the students, not for professors and administrators.
It is significant that under pressure from ethnic minorities, CU now offers courses in the field, created a department of Ethnic Studies and has hired a top administrator who oversees ethnic diversity. In the last 25 years, however, no administrator or regent has dared to introduce pluralism of ideas, which would enrich the learning of the next generation of leaders in every sphere of life.
Whenever the question is raised about hiring more Republicans to provide the students more meaningful lectures, the administrators respond speciously that the university cannot ask a candidate for a teaching or administrative position what his/her political affiliation is. However, there is no need to ask a candidate about his political affiliation because each must submit publications and letters of recommendation.
I have been on many search committees. We never had any problem discovering the political views of any candidate. In case of doubt, one or two telephone calls to teachers, colleagues and friends of an applicant provide a more complete answer.
This argument is a dishonest excuse for the perpetuation of a system that has been self-imposed by administrators and faculty and approaches the educational system of totalitarian coercion that existed in the Soviet Union, Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany and Communist China.
What is most shameful is that out of 44 top administrators at the University of Colorado in Boulder, only five are Republicans. Were they appointed by a crapshoot? What happened to the law of averages?
There is an old Jewish saying that a fish starts rotting from the head. How can one expect any change of the present system among the faculty when the administrators set such a dreadful example? How can there be any reform when the majority of citizens are complacent? Future generations will curse us for not leaving them a heritage of freedom.
Edward J. Rozek is a University of Colorado professor emeritus.
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