Workplace Blog

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Academic freedom not in jeopardy, SUNY trustees say

State University of New York trustees eschewed an “Academic Bill of Rights” being promoted to fight alleged liberal indoctrination in higher education, after a majority of college leaders and instructors told them Thursday such freedoms are not being suppressed.

Carl Wiezalis, president of the University Faculty Senate, said he has not seen evidence of discrimination against students or professors with different viewpoints. “I don’t think we need to be lectured by outside agencies,” he said.

He was referring to Students for Academic Freedom, a national group founded by David Horowitz, a conservative commentator. The group says the measure is needed across the country because the atmosphere at many schools doesn’t encourage intellectual diversity. Liberal arts faculties are “politically and philosophically one-sided,” according to the group’s Web site.

On Thursday, SUNY’s Academic Standards Committee listened to four college presidents, five faculty members and one student, most of whom said sufficient protections exist for academic freedom and there was no need for further action.

But David Staveley, a political science professor at SUNY Brockport, said there is an obvious lack of conservative viewpoints on campus. He has been called a right-wing fascist because he supports the war in Iraq.
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No state legislatures have come close to enacting the David Horowitz’s “academic bill of rights,” although Pennsylvania lawmakers have held a series of hearings designed to highlight instances in which they say political conservatives have been discriminated against on college campuses (The Chronicle, January 11).

NWAnews.com: Professor removed over foul language

Music professor Kabin Thomas kicks off each semester at the University of Arkansas with a warning.

Those offended by foul language and adult humor should drop his class, Thomas tells students.

In late January, a female student approached Thomas after class and informed the professor that she was taking him up on his offer.

“And I’m filing a formal complaint against you,” she told the teacher.

Thomas, who won’t reveal the student’s identity, was stunned.

A few weeks later, he was removed from the classroom.

UA reassigned Thomas on Feb. 24, and two music professors now teach the three sections of music lecture Thomas taught for a decade. The class is known commonly as “music appreciation,” Thomas said.

Thomas said administrators approached him about looking at music lecture courses at other universities and preparing a report as to how those courses compare to the way he taught his classes. But so far, he hasn’t done that, Thomas said. More than a third of the 908 students in Thomas’ classes have either signed a petition calling for his reinstatement or joined a protest group, “Save Kabin,” on facebook. com, an online site for college and high school students to post Web logs, known as blogs. Laura Myler, a freshman art history major from Elkins, said she stopped going to her music lecture class after Thomas was reassigned. “He is different from the other teachers,” Myler said. “There are a lot of teachers out there who are like, ‘Read this, do this.’ As soon as I met him, I was like, ‘Wow, there is something different there.’ He does say some controversial things.”

THE DEAN’S DECISION Don Bobbitt, dean of the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, said he reassigned Thomas after carefully weighing the January complaint and other previous student complaints against Thomas’ effectiveness as a teacher.

It’s the first time he’s removed a professor from classes in the three years he’s been dean, Bobbitt said.

“When I feel that the actions in a classroom are affecting the ability of students to learn, then I think I must act,” Bobbitt said. “This is a difficult one. I have a lot of respect for professor Thomas.”

Thomas hasn’t been fired from his $ 40, 000-a-year position. He is on a nine-month contract that ends in May. He doesn’t have tenure and doesn’t expect to be back, he said. Thomas refused to give his age. According to voting records he is 43.