The threat of right-wing dominion
by John Chapman
Symposiums for academic freedom are nice. But what are liberal professors doing to organize for real political change at the universities they work for?
While Conservatives are planning to get the upper hand many Liberal professors are lolling around instead of using what influence they still have to drive policy. As universities are becoming increasingly dependent on corporate support administrators are caving in to conservative pressure.
For most progressive professors, their only concerns seem to be scholarship, classroom skills and occasionally day-long-to-late-evening gossip and arguments at weekend retreats. Having attended one as an non-academic and outsider, my head spun listening to hours of rival’s skeletons being dragged out of closets and the bickering, inner-world politics of a university, each man or woman being cleverer than the other in weaving webs of words around any subject academic. Endless self-conscious cleverness of pointless arabesque. What a silly way to live while a war is being waged against them.
Meanwhile, Conservatives have been effectively organizing for years and spending millions to dictate what should be taught or not taught at universities. Take that Right-wing activist David Horowitz, roving all over the country masterminding his "Academic Bill of Rights". His objective is to make sure that someday the government will regulate the content of what a professor may or may not teach, an academic dictatorship of sorts. If successful, some university of the future will mount a statue in his honor. I also watched in awe one afternoon while UVA students raptly listened to Pat Robertson on television, who I realized happens to be another rover in the name of dictating what people should do with their personal lives in this country.
http://www.campusprogress.org/
Symposiums for academic freedom are nice. But what are liberal professors doing to organize for real political change at the universities they work for?
While Conservatives are planning to get the upper hand many Liberal professors are lolling around instead of using what influence they still have to drive policy. As universities are becoming increasingly dependent on corporate support administrators are caving in to conservative pressure.
For most progressive professors, their only concerns seem to be scholarship, classroom skills and occasionally day-long-to-late-evening gossip and arguments at weekend retreats. Having attended one as an non-academic and outsider, my head spun listening to hours of rival’s skeletons being dragged out of closets and the bickering, inner-world politics of a university, each man or woman being cleverer than the other in weaving webs of words around any subject academic. Endless self-conscious cleverness of pointless arabesque. What a silly way to live while a war is being waged against them.
Meanwhile, Conservatives have been effectively organizing for years and spending millions to dictate what should be taught or not taught at universities. Take that Right-wing activist David Horowitz, roving all over the country masterminding his "Academic Bill of Rights". His objective is to make sure that someday the government will regulate the content of what a professor may or may not teach, an academic dictatorship of sorts. If successful, some university of the future will mount a statue in his honor. I also watched in awe one afternoon while UVA students raptly listened to Pat Robertson on television, who I realized happens to be another rover in the name of dictating what people should do with their personal lives in this country.
http://www.campusprogress.org/
Sadly, this is the case