[IP] House urges end to liberal bias on Pennsylvania campuses
House urges end to liberal bias on Pennsylvania campuses
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
By Bill Toland, Post-Gazette Harrisburg Bureau
HARRISBURG -- Hoping to root out political intolerance at
Pennsylvania's college campuses, the state House of Representatives
is forming a committee to investigate claims among some college
students that professors gave them unfair grades because of differing
political ideologies.
But critics of proposals like these say political conservatives,
emboldened by election successes over the past decade, are making a
thinly veiled charge at the last bastion of liberalism -- college
campuses -- armed with flimsy evidence and in search of a problem
that doesn't really exist.
Rep. Gibson Armstrong, R-Lancaster, says he's collected about 50
examples of "intolerance" from college students. Armstrong's
proposal, which parrots others made in legislatures across the
country, is based on the concern among Republicans that conservative
students are at worst graded unfairly, or at the very least feel
intimidated because their views don't match those of their liberal
professors.
The resolution was approved last night by the House, 108-90, after
the House voted to end debate on the subject, even though several
representatives remained in the speaking queue. By that point, debate
on the resolution had consumed parts of two days, with the House
interrupting debate Monday night, Independence Day, so everyone could
go watch the fireworks.
Gibson, in explaining the proposal, said that he hopes to guarantee
"free speech and tolerance" at the colleges that are owned or partly
owned by the state. The resolution, which does not need the
governor's signature, says that "students and faculty should be
protected from the imposition of ideological orthodoxy," and students
should be "graded based on academic merit, without regard for
ideological views."
The investigative committee, composed primarily of the House's higher
education subcommittee, plus two appointees, would explore whatever
problems exist and then determine if corrective legislation is
necessary.
The movement to temper the liberal stronghold on college campuses
germinated quickly. So far this calendar year, more than a dozen
state legislatures have considered bills that would either restrict
professors, or set up a committee or grievance process that would
explore the allegations of unfair treatment.
None of the proposals has passed into law, and wherever they have
been advanced, they've created controversy among lawmakers, students
and especially university professors. Pennsylvania's version has been
percolating since April, and has already drawn opposition from
teachers groups, like the American Association of University Professors.
One of the driving forces behind the movement is the Students for
Academic Freedom, a Washington-based group founded by activist David
Horowitz. In an interview with The Christian Science Monitor, he said
the past six months have been a "watershed in the academic-freedom
movement" and hopes the movement to monitor teachers for bias will
eventually trickle down to public elementary and high schools.
Students for Academic Freedom says its goal is to "end the political
abuse of the university and to restore integrity to the academic
mission as a disinterested pursuit of knowledge." The group plans to
distribute a book called "Unpatriotic University," which tells
readers that colleges are full of "anti-American rhetoric, and [shut
out] conservative points of view both in classrooms and on speakers'
platforms."
Much of the Pennsylvania bill was borrowed from the Horowitz group's
"academic bill of rights."
Rep. Mark Cohen, D-Philadelphia, referred to the Horowitz group and
said the resolution is just "an attempt to respond to a national
movement. ... We're just trying to fall in line."
(Bill Toland can be reached at btoland@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx or
1-717-787-2141.)
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