Slippery Rock Slide

In late March, the Pennsylvania State Select Committee held hearings on academic freedom at Millersville University.

Witnesses included university administrators, professors, officials from outside organizations such as the Intercollegiate Study Institute and a few students, but the most condemning words presented against the Pennsylvania colleges and universities were spoken by Professor Alan Levy of Slippery Rock University.

“Many students thus report that a professor on my campus openly commences her classes with the unashamed statement that she teaches from a feminist perspective and that no other outlooks are welcome before her,” said Levy explaining how Women’s Studies at Slippery Rock has become a politicization of the curriculum.

Levy called the behavior of such professors disingenuous because they say they need civility and openness, but then “dispense with civility, open-mindedness, and often and not coincidentally, intellectual rigor as well.”

Regarding the lack of intellectual rigor found in many of these classes, Levy referred to “Feminist Perspectives in the Disciplines” which in 15 weeks covers “economics, biology, chemistry, physics, sociology, history, political science, anthropology, art, music and more. It is a mile wide and an inch deep.”

Levy, who has taught at Slippery Rock for 21 years, said he discussed his opinions of such women’s studies classes with some professors who agreed with him, but had a “go along/get along” attitude.

“This laziness continues to permit academic quality to deteriorate, as often highly personal politics cloud academic standards,” explained Levy.

That same laziness can lead to lying about scholarship, as Levy contends one Slippery Rock faculty member did by falsely claiming to have two published books. Levy spoke up about this and learned that not “going along” can have negative consequences.

This professor who faked credentials, posed as a student on RateMyProfessor.com and called Levy a “misogynist” and tried with other professors to get him fired.

“The Slippery Rock administration once tried to hold back my application for promotion for explicitly political reasons. One former dean was frank about it with me: ‘They’re just slappin’ your wrist,’ he said, ‘because you’ve p—– some people off.’,” said Levy.

Levy says he then challenged the administration and mentioned the dean’s remarks, causing them to be furious with the dean. While he submitted a grievance regarding this incident, he also hired a lawyer, after which Levy did receive his promotion.

But there are other problems at Slippery Rock too, including the unspoken, but practiced policy of choosing course curricula based on a 50-percent representation of women, explained Levy. Another is some professors’ requirement of attendance at the play The Vagina Monologues even when that required an out-of-pocket cost to the students.

Dissident speech by faculty members is not encouraged either, especially when it comes to criticism of the feminist scholars’ interests such as the Monologues.

“Three professors wrote a letter in the campus newspaper, not advocating that the performance be stopped, but simply presenting the idea that the play entails, as much as anything else, the misandrist, carping pseudo-victimology of a group of people who claim to be oppressed while actually being more wealthy and privileged than 99+ percent of all the people who have ever lived on this planet,” said Levy.

Their punishment was that one was called “a cheap Jew,” and another had trash dumped on his lawn and a stone hurled through his car window.

Julia A. Seymour is a staff writer for Accuracy in Academia.