March/April 2007

Censorship flows to K-12
The Arizona state Legislature is considering a bill that could levy a $500 fine on professors who advocate "one side of a social, political or cultural issue that is a matter of partisan controversy," the Arizona Daily Star reports. K-12 teachers could face three hours of re-education or the loss of their teaching certificate for doing the same. "This is cutting-edge for Arizona," says David Horowitz, president of the David Horowitz Freedom Center. "Unfortunately, there is a movement to indoctrinate students in our K-12 system." Horowitz announced a year ago that he would take his Academic Bill of Rights (ABOR) campaign to the schools.

Whack those moles!
As in Arizona, ABOR-type bills are popping up in state legislatures from Kentucky to West Virginia to Georgia to both chambers of the New York Assembly. The Texas Legislature has before it a resolution that would "encourage the state's colleges and universities to implement policies to safeguard the academic freedom of faculty and students." Joining ABOR is an equally politicized and unnecessary measure crafted by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA). It mandates that institutions prove they have "intellectual diversity" on campus. Virginia has been one of the first state legislatures to reject this legislation. In a scathing editorial, the Roanoke Times said the legislation’s sponsor, Delegate Steven Landes' (R-Weyers Cave), had an agenda that "has nothing to do with diversity and a free exchange of ideas":

"His bill would require Virginia's colleges and universities to report annually what they are doing to promote ideological balance. Schools, for example, would be expected to have a balanced roster of guest speakers and faculty. Call it affirmative action for conservatives."

Delegates Jeion Ward (D-Hampton) and James Schuler (D-Blacksburg) were instrumental in rounding up support for tabling the bill.

Montana currently has an intellectual diversity bill calling for annual hearings and an annual report from institutions. The week AFT On Campus went to press, former American Association of University Professors president Roger Bowen and ACTA president Anne Neal faced off in a debate on the need for intellectual diversity legislation in the state. Missouri has similar legislation pending. Hopefully, academic freedom supporters in the statehouses will take clear aim and whack these bills down as Virginia did.

The Free Exchange on Campus coalition has added to its Website a legislation tracker that updates the various pieces of so-called academic freedom and Academic Bill of Rights legislation in state legislatures around the country.

Intelligent design in New Mexico
From New Mexico comes news of proposed "academic freedom" legislation regarding the teaching of evolution. Introduced by State Senator Steve Komadina, Senate Bill 371 and the accompanying resolution, Senate Joint Memorial 9, aim to sneak Intelligent Design and other forms of Creationism into the science classroom. Coincidentally, some of the same language in this bill appeared in one that was killed in the Oklahoma legislature last year.

Students are politically engaged
The number of students who align themselves politically and who talk about politics is greater than it has been in 40 years, according to The American Freshman, the annual survey done by the UCLA Higher Education Research Institute (HERI). This year, 270,000 students at 400 institutions participated. Fewer than ever reported themselves as "middle of the road;" 23.9 percent said they were conservative and 28.4 percent said they were liberal. One-third of the students say they talk about politics regularly. "Students are increasingly seeing that major public-policy issues affect their lives," observes Thomas Ehrlich, co-director of the Political Engagement Project at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, as reported in the Chronicle of Higher Education. "Health care, energy, the war in Iraq—these issues have direct impact on their lives and they know it."

"This bodes well for fostering democratic citizenship in college," says Sylvia Hurtado, HERI director.