Liberal student sounds off for academic freedom!

I find it admirable that David Horowitz has published a long editorial from a liberal student who, among other things, is offended by Horowitz!

I find most of David Horowitz's right-wing views to be offensive. I lead an anti-war rally at Foothill College, and I voted against George W. Bush both times. That having been said, intellectual pluralism is not a political issue. We must treat intellectual pluralism as an issue of intellectual freedom. Both liberal students and conservative students ought to be free to express their ideas in the classroom. My story describes the denial of student rights and opinions, grade manipulation and favoritism. It also describes the six-month long battle I fought with Foothill College, and the College's attempt to silence myself, my views, and my retelling of what happened in within a Foothill College classroom.
The entire piece is a must-read, as it documents intolerance and bigotry by a professor on the right as well as another professor on the left. The right wing professor blatantly assigned an "F" grade because a student disagreed with his views on abortion, while the left wing professor "recommended psychological therapy to an Arab student who had praised the U.S. Constitution." In both instances the school refuses to respect academic pluralism:
the Foothill College bureaucracy, all the way up to President Bernadine Fong, have chosen to treat to ignore the larger issue and silence individual cases. As a result, intellectual pluralism has been ruined, and Foothill College no longer an institution of free ideas.
The student concludes with a plea that Foothill College's board of trustees implement the Academic Bill of Rights.

While I haven't verified the student's allegations, I applaud David Horowitz for publishing the views of one of his critics. In any event, I wholeheartedly support the Academic Bill of Rights, which consists of a simple, common-sense codification of what I always thought was supposed to be traditional academic freedom.

posted by Eric on 12.15.04 at 11:02 AM





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This young man sounds like a true liberal. Too many of the Right have used "liberal" as a pejorative and a synonym for radical or Leftist. It isn't. I call anybody a liberal if he believes in freedom of thought and expression, and I _won't_ call him liberal if he doesn't. The Left used to be much more liberal, but it has increasingly become totalitarian. Most of the real liberals today are to be found on the Right or the non-Left, e.g., Dean Esmay.

Reminds me of Alexander Mieklejohn, that great liberal of the 1950s and early 1960s. I don't hear of him any more. I have a book by him on democracy and free speech. E. Merrill Root once called him "that great mind of the Left", as Alexander Mieklejohn appreciated that fact that Christ's answer to the question about Caesar's coin was the _height_ of intellectual power.

E. Merrill Root and Alexander Mieklejohn. The Conservative and the Liberal. The _style_ of that polarity!

I find most of David Horowitz's right-wing views to be offensive.

I'm feeling a Dean scream coming on.
I'm so tired of this tactic (which I see almost exclusively from the Left) in which one doesn't disagree with someone else's views...one finds the views offensive. As if advocating vouchers or a flat tax is the social equivalent of dropping ones drawers and defecating on the livingroom floor.

Why is no one actively challenging such smarminess?

Darleen   ·  December 15, 2004 04:06 PM

Well, I can only speak for myself, Darleen, but let me stick out my neck here. I'd go so far as to say that "advocating vouchers or a flat tax" is NOT "the social equivalent of dropping ones drawers and defecating on the livingroom floor."

I realize that many people will find that mere statement offensive, of course. And I apologize profusely for the incalculable damage I may have done to their self esteem....

Steven, I trust you can do a better job than I of explaining why my failure to be offended is itself offensive. (For reasons I can't fathom, I've managed to offend a lot of people that way....)

Eric Scheie   ·  December 15, 2004 04:39 PM

I'm my circle liberal elites, talking about a "flat tax" is in fact the social equivalent of doing what Darlene says ... Moreover, it is often accompanied by that very act. What strange company we keep.

bink   ·  December 16, 2004 01:35 PM

Ach ...

I'm my circle OF liberal elites ...

bink   ·  December 16, 2004 01:37 PM

We are living in the Age of the Offended.



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