Unlike the state assemblymen tasked with investigating the controversy, I personally know that there is a problem with academic freedom in the Keystone state and around the country and a lack of student testifiers is not proof otherwise. While running a booth at the Pennsylvania Leadership Conference, I met students, parents and grandparents all concerned with the unchecked liberal bias on their campuses. I met a young man who wrote a final paper from a perspective he finds revolting just because he knew it was the only way to get an A. He said writing it literally made his stomach turn but he needed the grade.
When people stop telling me stories like this one, or when offenses come as a shock to the ordinary people I meet on a daily basis, then I will believe there is academic freedom for students in Pennsylvania and in other states.
If the committee wanted to know the truth, they should have been out there talking to students, or having their staffers talk to students. If they want to know if students feel free to speak their minds in class instead of self-censoring, if they are fairly graded by professors, if they have not been punished for holding views contrary to their professors’ view, and if they want to know if students are afraid of their professors, they should walk into a campus dining hall, or student center or any gathering place for students and engage them with these questions and not simply dismiss their viewpoints because they have never filed a formal complaint.
This is how academic freedom in Pennsylvania could be assessed. And it would probably be more effective than holding hearings at which a majority of the testifiers are administrators out of touch with the realities of a student’s world or union representatives who are notorious promoters of the status quo and consistently prevent changes from being made.
I also suggest the committee members read the Campus Report since we have found many students, parents, and professors who say there is a problem with higher education.
Committee members should have listened to Radio Free Penn State’s Academic Freedom Week and heard about the electrical engineering exam at Penn State that asked students, “Should we be at war in Iraq?” and learned that students were marked down for answering, “Yes.” Even Penn State Professor Michael Berube agreed on air that if such a test existed, it is unacceptable.
Committee members should look at blogs run by Pennsylvania students and teachers and read message boards.
But most importantly, members should not dismiss the students, professors, and administrators who came to the committee believing there is a problem, instead of dismissing their testimony as hearsay or not credible.
The committee has one last opportunity to hear comments in a public forum on May 31 and June 1 at Harrisburg Area Community College. Currently, the hearings are to be held in rooms 155-156 of the C. Ted Lick Conference Center at HACC from 1-5 p.m. on May 31, and from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. on June 1.
The roster for speakers at HACC currently includes no students, one professor and a number of administrators. With that lineup, it seemly unlikely that any new ground will be covered in Harrisburg.
Julia A. Seymour is a staff writer for Accuracy in Academia. To read her earlier piece “Ignoring the Smoke and Fire” click here.
