Ohio University Students Consider Need for ABOR · 15 April 2004
By Lauren Coyle--Athens News, 04/15/04
Conservative students across the country have allied to promote an "Academic Bill of Rights," which would allegedly lessen what they perceive to be a liberal bias on college campuses. Ohio University students, however, differ on whether this campus needs more "political diversity" among professors.
Annie Mitchell, treasurer of the OU College Republicans, argues that political discrimination is definitely a problem on campus. "It's so obvious that there is a liberal bias when it comes to the professors I've had over the past two years at OU," said Mitchell, a sophomore journalism and theater major. "Depending on the professor I have, I am sometimes inclined to have a more 'middle-of-the-road' opinion to my papers to ensure I don't get a lower grade. But my papers are never liberal. I'm not that scared of a lower grade."
Senior Pam Ogilvy, Senior Class Council vice president, said she does not see a problematic liberal bias at OU. "I have never felt that I had to alter my political beliefs in order to do well on a project, paper, or in a class in general," she said. "If I can justify my rationale and explain my beliefs, I do very well. It has had nothing to do with my political background." Obilvy is majoring in political science.
In a study released last year, the Center for the Study of Popular Culture performed research on 32 colleges and concluded that Democratic professors outnumber Republican professors 10 to 1. Conservative pundit David Horowitz, who founded the center and initiated the study, also developed the Academic Bill of Rights and the national group, Students for Academic Freedom, to combat the alleged imbalance of political ideology among professors.
Students for Academic Freedom, which now has chapters on 130 campuses, claims that conservative students are often made to feel uncomfortable in college classrooms because of liberal professors who expect liberal arguments. Conservative students have complained that this hinders their intellectual experience and sometimes adversely affects their grades.
The Academic Bill of Rights, which has been proposed to university administrations as a prospective policy for adoption, stresses the importance of intellectual "diversity" and demands professors' careful attention to presenting opposing viewpoints. "All faculty members will be hired, fired, promoted, and granted tenure on the basis of their competence and appropriate knowledge in the field of their expertise and, in the humanities, the social sciences, and the arts, with a view toward fostering a plurality of methodologies and perspectives," states the document.
Some legislators are attempting to make the bill law. U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., introduced it at the 108th Congress last October as a concurrent resolution. Since then, 36 additional lawmakers have cosponsored the bill. It has been referred to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce and the Subcommittee on 21st Century Competitiveness.
The American Association of University Professors, whose statements about academic goals the Academic Bill of Rights' proponents often cite, opposes the proposal. The group argues that mechanisms ensuring political neutrality in faculty hiring and teaching are already operative and effective.
AAUP, which represents roughly 45,000 faculty members on 500 campuses, maintains that the policy in fact limits intellectual freedom by placing restrictions upon teaching and academic inquiry. "When carefully analyzed... the Academic Bill of Rights undermines the very academic freedom it claims to support," the association says in its official statement on the bill.
AAUP opposes indoctrination, but says it must be measured by "scholarly and professional standards," not by courts or university administrations. It reasons that only those within a particular scholarly field have the in-depth knowledge that is required to discern between indoctrination and professional pedagogy within their respective fields.
It also points out that the bill's concept of "diversity" is deceptive, promoting hiring based on politics and not on scholarly quality. "For example, no department of political theory ought to be obligated to establish a 'plurality of methodologies and perspectives' by appointing a professor of Nazi political philosophy, if that philosophy is not deemed a reasonable scholarly option within the discipline of political theory," AAUP says.
George Bain, adviser to the OU College Democrats, agrees with this argument. "I think academic freedom is handled pretty well in this country, and I believe its health is handled best within the academic community," Bain said. "The effort being made by the Students for Academic Freedom strikes me as a poor approach, seeking a legislative means for something better handled through the marketplace."
OU STUDENTS ARE DIVIDED over the issue. Clayton Henson, president of the OU College Republicans, said that some students from the group may start a Students for Academic Freedom chapter at OU. "One individual in our club had an art teacher who spent 15 or 20 minutes ranting about the president," he recalled. "That is an abuse of academic power, and that is what we would like to stop."
Others vow to oppose the university's adoption of the Academic Bill of Rights. "If a state university would hire a so-so conservative professor over a phenomenal liberal professor just because of political leanings, I would be tremendously disappointed," said Ogilvy, treasurer of the OU College Democrats.
Henson, a senior political science and philosophy major, said he would support the university's adoption of the bill because his education is hindered by the predominance of liberal professors. "Professors can only teach what they know, and most of what they know would be viewed as left-of-center to one degree or another," he said. "Everything I know about conservatism, capitalism, libertarianism, or any number of theories that are viewed as right-of-center is not generally taught, and when these things are brought up, they are rarely taken seriously."
Henson expands his criticism beyond professors to other components of the university. "There are also some opinions out there which you are not allowed to have," he said. "If you do not totally support something like, say, diversity, you're demonized. The administration, the Student Senate and Residence Life are far more threatening to an individual's intellectual freedom than the faculty is. They support certain positions, demonize others, and simply tell you what to think."
Toby Fallsgraff, president of the OU College Democrats, argues that a liberal professor does not necessarily impose a liberal bias in class. "The late Frank Henderson in political science was an unabashed liberal, but his class was by no means affiliated with a liberal agenda," said Fallsgraff, a senior journalism major. "He, like any good professor -- liberal or conservative, moderate or radical -- embraced any student who could develop an argument and defend it."
Fallsgraff noted that certain departments on campus are known to have conservative or liberal leanings, but he does not see this as a problem. "I know that there are some very liberal departments on campus, as well as a few strongly conservative departments," he said. "However, I would refrain from advocating the business school must hire 45 percent liberal professors from now on. It's silly."
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