December 2006

ABOR bites the dust in PA
The Pennsylvania Select Committee on Academic Freedom in Higher Education sifted through the evidence and concluded that the state’s citizens don’t need legislation to impose the so-called Academic Bill of Rights on public colleges and universities. With that decision, released Nov. 14, Pennsylvania joins more than 20 states in rejecting government intervention in what faculty can teach and students can learn inside the classroom.

"In education, there is no need for the thought police," said American Federation of Teachers Vice President William Scheuerman, who testified before the committee in January.

The committee was formed last year after passage of HR 177. It was charged with investigating state colleges and universities to ensure that there’s an "environment conducive to the pursuit of knowledge and truth and the expression of independent thought," and to ensure institutions have procedures in place to handle student complaints. The committee held nine days of hearings across the state, heard from 37 witnesses and 40 public commenters and received evidence from all Pennsylvania public higher education institutions.

"Now that this process is over, we hope that the Legislature will turn to the real problems students face in Pennsylvania, such as paying for their education," said Megan Fitzgerald, field director for the Free Exchange on Campus Coalition.

Students ask, why reaffirm the normal?

The closer students get to the so-called Academic Bill of Rights, the more suspicious it sounds. Asheesh Kapur Siddique is a senior at Princeton University, where students voted in an April referendum for the policy. Writing in an Oct. 28 Washington Post op-ed, Thought Police in the Lecture Hall,"Siddique observes that "the policy only hurts the students it purports to help," for "it impedes education." Besides, he adds, most universities already have policies that protect students from the kinds of harassment the policy prohibits.

At the University of Arizona, Matt Stone is equally dubious. In a column for the Arizona Daily Wildcat, Stone decries the state Legislature’s attempt to pass a bill that would allow students to refuse assignments they find offensive. That failed, but the Arizona Board of Regents then moved to pass a resolution requiring advance notice to students of course content. Hardly an innovation, Stone helpfully points out: "It’s called a syllabus". Why, he asks, do students need "a reaffirmation of what is already considered normal?"

The bill "reeks of governmental paternalism," he writes. "You can almost hear Barry Goldwater writhing in his grave."

Faculty doors are no-free-speech zones

Is nothing sacred? We think of faculty doors as a place for posting office hours, inspiring quotes, and other provocative or silly items at the occupant’s discretion. But at Marquette University, one philosophy grad student has found, Dave Barry is beyond the pale.

Dave Barry, one of America’s most treasured humorists? Yes, that one.

Last summer, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education reports, Stuart Ditsler put the following Barry quote on his office door.

"As Americans we must always remember that we all have a common enemy, an enemy that is dangerous, powerful, and relentless. I refer, of course, to the federal government."

A short while later, it disappeared, and Ditsler received an e-mail from his chair, FIRE reports:

"I had several complaints today about a quotation that was on the door of CH 132F. I’ve taken the quotation down. While I am a strong supporter of academic freedom, I’m afraid that hallways and office doors are not ‘free-speech zones.’ If material is patently offensive and has no obvious academic import or university sanction, I have little choice but to take note."

FIRE calls the act one of censorship and complains in a press release that the zone for the free exchange of ideas on some campuses is getting ever smaller.

A free speech violation or just an indignity of the academic pecking order? As Dave Barry has said, "you can only be young once, but you can always be immature."