Behind the SAF Scenes

Because the so-called mainstream media and particularly Media Matters had a hard time digesting the treasure trove of information delivered at the academic freedom conference hosted by activist and author David Horowitz, Campus Report is featuring stories on the symposium.

The conference showcased a stellar line-up of speakers including, of course, Horowitz himself, scholar Sol Stern, State University of New York trustee Candace deRussy and about a half a dozen students from as many states giving their first-person accounts of academic abuse. The event that got the most attention, of course, was the debate between Horowitz and infamous University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill.

“It was gasoline and matches, figuratively speaking, though civility was well maintained,” according to former Colorado State Senator John Andrews. “To the main question of the debate, ‘Can and should politics be taken out of the classroom?,’ Churchill said flatly no.”

“‘There is no truth,’ he asserted, merely a dominant orthodoxy enforced by power, which results in there being no real democracy in America today. Hence teachers at all levels are not merely allowed but obligated to aggressively question the status quo, Churchill argued.”

“By this standard, what Jay Bennish said regarding Bush and Hitler was appropriate for the classroom, Churchill insisted near the end of the hour-long exchange. His dogmatic Marxist world view was defiantly (if implicitly) evident throughout.”

While still serving in the Colorado assembly, State Senator Andrews introduced an Academic bill of rights similar to the one that Horowitz crafted. Oddly, an intern who was present at a get-together with Churchill after the debate reveals that, when talking to a group of conservative students, the embattled Colorado professor revealed that he is pro-life on the issue of abortion.

Stopping to have a smoke in the bar that the conference was held in, I found myself at the next table to Ward Churchill and kicked myself for missing a great photo op. Accuracy in Academia did, after all, name an award after him.

Some right-wing activists and students got Churchill to sign copies of the new David Horowitz book, The Professors, in which the Ethnic Studies professor figures prominently. We should note that Churchill did so graciously.

My own encounter with him was surprisingly amicable. Leaving the hotel towards the end of the conference on Friday, April 7th, I spotted him.

Yes, I, too, asked for his autograph. He agreed to sign one. The only book I had with me for him to inscribe upon was a collection of essays by left-wing college professors.

“I feel a little weird signing somebody else’s book,” Churchill said. “They might accuse me of plagiarism again.”

“I’m from Accuracy in Academia, I’ll back you up on this one,” I reassured him. “I do want you to put down a particular inscription, though.”

“What’s that?,” he asked suspiciously. “I would like you to write, ‘From one smoker to another,” I answered. He thought that was hilarious.

He penned the agreed-upon line, looked up impishly and said, “Should I sign it Osama bin Churchill?” “Sign it any way you like,” said I. He signed it Ward Churchill.

Malcolm A. Kline is the executive director of Accuracy in Academia.