Students For Academic Freedom

'Academic Freedom' Measure Advances · 26 February 2004

Republican lawmakers, students accuse professor of unfair treatment

By Ryan Morgan--Daily Camera, 02/26/04

DENVER - An "academic freedom" bill took its first step toward becoming law Wednesday after a raucous committee hearing that saw Republican lawmakers and conservative students accuse a college professor in the audience of harassing students who testified in favor of the bill.

Sponsored by Rep. Shawn Mitchell, R-Broomfield, House Bill 1315 is meant to protect students from being singled out, ridiculed or punished academically by professors because of their political views.

"You are the reason this bill is necessary," Rep. Keith King, the House majority leader, said as he pointed a finger at Metro State College philosophy professor Tim Gould.

Gould confronted University of Colorado student Ian Van Buskirk after Van Buskirk told House Education Committee members that they should pass the bill to "send a chilling message to those professors" who bully conservative students because of their political beliefs.

Van Buskirk said he'd been discriminated against on the CU Boulder campus because of his conservative views.

Van Buskirk said Gould delivered a profanity-laced threat to sue him if Buskirk tried to limit what he could say.

After seeing the confrontation, King took the unusual step of asking Van Buskirk to step back up the microphone and relate the incident to committee members.

Afterward, Gould said he did tell Van Buskirk he would take the issue to court, and he acknowledged that he probably came across as aggressive.

"I'm sure I was in your face," he told Van Buskirk. "It was street theater."

But Gould noted that he isn't Van Buskirk's professor and said he wasn't trying to intimidate a student because of his political views.

CU President Elizabeth Hoffman said universities already have procedures in place for students to make complaints against professors.

If those procedures need fine-tuning to make them more effective, Hoffman said, school administrators should be the ones to make the changes.

"The message this bill sends to the faculty and staff at our universities is that we do not respect them, that the Legislature does not respect and trust them," she said.

Rep. Jack Pommer, D-Boulder, said that students who think they've been discriminated against should use the existing grievance process.

Responding to some students' complaints that they couldn't figure out how to file a grievance, Pommer, who had a notebook computer on his desk as he spoke, said he pulled up the procedure during the meeting just by using the Google.com search engine.

Committee members voted 6-5 along party lines to pass the bill, Republicans in favor and Democrats against it. The bill will be heard next on the House floor.

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