Delivered-To: dfarber+@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Mon, 03 Nov 2003 10:03:43 -0500
From: Gary Johnston <gary@xxxxxxx>
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/johnleo/jl20031103.shtml
The Sheldon -- it's baaack
John Leo
November 3, 2003
Many readers with far too much time on their hands have written in and
asked: Whatever happened to this column?s annual Sheldon award? Well, it?s
back. As all Sheldon fans know, the prize goes to the university president
who does the most to look the other way when free speech is under assault on
campus. The Sheldon is a statuette that looks something like the Oscar,
except that the Oscar shows a man with no face looking straight ahead,
whereas the Sheldon shows a man with no spine looking the other way. It is
named for Sheldon Hackney, former president of the University of
Pennsylvania and a modern legend in looking the other way. After minority
students in 1993 stole the entire press run of a campus newspaper, Hackney
refused to discipline the thieves. But the guard who pursued them was
reprimanded, a nice touch.
Emulating Hackney is like setting out to be the new Babe Ruth, but many try.
A strong contender this year is William Cibes Jr., chancellor of the
Connecticut State University system. One professor, fed up with one-sided
seminars and guest lectures at CSU, asked the university to endorse airing a
full range of views in these programs. Cibes said no, on the grounds that
such a statement could justly be seen as ?invading academic freedom.? He is
believed to be the first college administrator to oppose intellectual
diversity as a threat to academic freedom.
More recently, when the newspaper at Hampton University in Virginia was
about to run an article on health violations at the cafeteria, acting
university president JoAnn Haysbert asked for space on Page 1 to give her
side. The editors put her article on Page 3, so she seized all copies of the
issue, which was then reprinted with her piece on Page 1. Haysbert may be a
bonehead, but she is ineligible for the Sheldon, which requires looking the
other way, not making off with a whole press run yourself.
A furor erupted at the University of Nevada -- Las Vegas when the student
newspaper ran an abrasive Columbus Day article celebrating Columbus and
rejecting both Indian cultures and the multicultural notion that all
cultures are somehow equal. Nearly all copies of the paper were stolen, and
the author of the article, Alexander Marriott, was fired from the staff of
the paper on a charge of plagiarism, since discredited. No word yet from
UNLV president Carol Harter, who is believed to be busy looking the other
way.
Also emerging from the pack of Sheldon contenders is Warren Baker, president
of California Polytechnic State University -- San Luis Obispo. A number of
black students were offended when a white student at the Multicultural
Center attempted to post a flier advertising a speech by black writer Mason
Weaver, author of It?s OK to Leave the Plantation, an argument that
dependence on government harms black Americans. The student, Steven Hinkle,
offered to discuss the flier but was met by threats to call police. The Cal
Poly judicial affairs office found Hinkle guilty of ?disruption of a campus
event,? although five of the seven complainants said the meeting had not yet
started and all seven said Hinkle entered quietly and conducted himself
civilly when challenged. So the ?disruption? seemed to be in the minds of
the complainants: They were offended by the content of the flier. The
Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) entered the case,
sending two letters to President Baker explaining his legal and moral
obligation to the First Amendment and academic freedom. No dice. He refused
to act.
Gerald Turner, president of Southern Methodist University, has made one of
the strongest bids for the Sheldon by allowing subordinates to shut down a
student bake sale that mocked the unfairness of race and gender preferences:
Identical cookies were offered at different prices for whites, minorities,
and women. The director of the student center said the issue wasn?t free
speech but ?a hostile environment being created that was potentially
volatile.?
Campus satire about affirmative action is greeted in much the same way that
jokes about Allah are welcomed by the Taliban. Hostile-environment charges
are a traditional campus way of saying ?I am offended, so silence those who
disagree with me.? And if violence is threatened, says University of
California -- Los Angeles law Prof. Eugene Volokh, a university should
respond ?by protecting the speakers against the would-be thugs, rather than
by shutting up the speakers and letting the thugs win.? President Turner,
however, declined to intervene, letting the censors win.
The presidents of SMU and Cal Poly are clearly way ahead of their
Sheldon-seeking rivals. Since there is little difference between them, the
Sheldon judges are awarding two trophies this year. Congratulations to
Gerald Turner and Warren Baker, Sheldon laureates of 2003.
©2003 Universal Press Syndicate