DAVID Horowitz, the dean of conservative campus paranoia, is having a rough month. First, the right-wing activist's latest attempt to expose the left wing conspiracy was received with gleeful ridicule throughout the blogosphere. Next, one of his favorite "academic freedom" stories turned out to be mostly false Then Horowitz found himself rebutting comparisons to Mao Dzedong. It almost feels cruel to pile on a guy who is so good at embarrassing himself, but Horowitz's recent activities provide irresistible insight into the mentality behind the campaign against liberal professors.
One of Horowitz's favorite anecdotes involves a student at the University of Northern Colorado who supposedly received an F on her exam for failing to explain "Why Bush is a war criminal." As it turns out, the student did not receive an F, and she misrepresented the question. At first, Horowitz admitted the inaccuracies, but he has since rescinded his admission and blamed liberals for the error.
Horowitz's new Web site, Discover the Network, promises to expose "the political left" in various fields, including academia. On the site, Horowitz insists that the project is meant to be informative, and that the profiles are not "merely caricatures by political enemies." However, the profiles include heavy editorializing -- almost every individual is accused of lying -- while the site's index places Democrats side by side with Osama bin Laden and Abu Musab al Zarqawi.
According to the site, we have two liberal conspirators on our very own faculty: History Prof. Julian Bond and Politics Prof. William Quandt, two of our most distinguished and popular professors."The idea of a list of this sort is highly offensive to me," said Quandt in an e-mail. "It seems aimed at stifling free inquiry."
Horowitz et al. describe Quandt as "anti-Israel," an allegation which Quandt finds absurd. "I have been teaching here for over ten years and more than 1,000 students have taken my courses on the Middle East," he said. "In anonymous course evaluations, students have never once been accused me of being anti-Israel, or anti-anybody else for that matter." In fact, Quandt has just received an All-University Outstanding Teaching Award.
Horowitz's antics would be worthy of little more than our sympathy if his movement wasn't actually gaining ground. At universities throughout the country, conservative students are all too eager to tattle on anyone who disagrees with them.
On the Web site of Horowitz's ironically named "Students for Academic Freedom," students have filed hundreds of grievances against their supposedly liberal professors. Writes one wounded student at Ohio State University, "I got an [sic] D- just because the professor hates families and thinks its [sic] okay to be gay."
Admittedly, some of these complaints could easily be pranks posted to parody the site, but many of the posts reveal serious, painstaking efforts to catalogue what these students view as grave injustice. A common thread is the theme of victimhood: When faced with material or discussion that challenges their political views, the students feel personally offended, and Horowitz encourages their sense of embattlement.For the academic freedom crowd, a bad grade reflects not a failure of personal responsibility but a liberal conspiracy to persecute conservatives, a phenomenon that exists largely in Horowitz's imagination.
Horowitz paints liberal professors as crazed ideologues who are intolerant of opposition in their classrooms, but while studies suggest that some departments contain more Democrats than Republicans, there is no evidence of systematic discrimination against conservative students.
While anyone can find anecdotal evidence of liberal and conservative professors who behave inappropriately toward students who disagree, the vast majority of professors conduct their classes with respect for all students and all points of view. Many professors are actually desperate for dissenting arguments in their efforts to promote class discussion.
Perhaps one of the most harmful effects of Horowitz's campaign is the implication that liberal ideas are unworthy of discussion. One offended student reported, "After [the professor] went about his criticism of President Bush and his policies, I refused to listen to the rest of the lecture and promptly left the classroom."In their efforts to resist "indoctrination," students are shutting out opposition altogether.
True academic freedom allows for the open exchange of ideas, an exchange that is threatened when students approach their education as a battle against the ideas of the other side. College presents a rare and valuable opportunity for students to debate their views with brilliant scholars who disagree with them. Conservative students should engage their liberal professors in intellectual conversation instead of notifying the authorities.
Cari Lynn Hennessy is a Cavalier Daily viewpoint writer.
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