Monday, February 06, 2006

 

The Ivory Tower

An *entrepreneur* and University of California Los Angeles graduate has taken to cleaning up his alma mater - one professor at a time.

UCLAprofs.com is a new snitch site designed to eliminate liberal, anti-American and pro-Muslim professors generating discussion in the classroom. Students are being encouraged to turn in *rogue* professors for a financial reward or just to stop the spread of malise.

FYI - the site was offering $100 for every recorded testimonial from a student regarding a professor, however that has since been abandoned for fear of legal recourse.

The site's mission is listed below:

UCLAProfs.com is a long-term project dedicated to exposing UCLA’s most radical professors. The extensively researched profiles you will find here are proof of an increasingly radical faculty. As a large number of the profiles also demonstrate, these professors are actively proselytizing their extreme views in the classroom, whether or not the commentary is relevant to the class topic.

The targets are here:

Do you have a professor who just can’t stop talking about President Bush, about Howard Dean, about the war in Iraq, about MoveOn.org, about the Republican Party, about the Democratic Party, or any other ideological issue that has nothing to do with the class subject matter? It doesn't matter whether this is a past class, or your ongoing class this winter quarter.

The site is run by the Bruin Alumni Association (a one-member group) and is financed by personal or corporate donations (e.g. California Republican party).

Just what is the Bruin Alumni Association? Well, it is the workings of one man - Andrew Jones (no, not the star Center Fielder for the Atlanta Braves). It is not related to the actual alumni association. Nor, does it have an affiliation to the university. It does not have an executive like most every other Alumni Association, however, it does have an Advisory Board.

The Advisory Board is made up of individuals with the following backgrounds. FYI - three have resigned and their names are still listed there:

The past Chairman of the California Republican Party;

A self-described staunch conservative on a modern politically correct campus;

The President of the California Republican Assembly;

The founder of pro-Israel non-profit organizations Dafka and Stop the ISM and long time activist against anti-Semitic and anti-Israel collegiate activities;

A “Friend of Israel” award winner as issued by the Central California Republican Jewish Coalition;

A frequent contributor to the Western Standard and occasional guest host for the Rush Limbaugh Show;

An individual active in the Republican Party and chair of the Latino Alliance, a federally registered political action committee.

It is pretty clear that Mr. Jones, the former head of the campus Republicans, is intent of making the lives of up to 31 professors difficult. UCLA - like most North American universities - has an anonymous student - professor evaluation and most even have awards for the best faculty - as voted on by the students.

Mr. Jones drive seems to run contrary to a little document written in 1787 (with a series of amendments beginning in 1791) outlining people RIGHTS. The right to free speech is still alive in the United States except if you say anything bad against:

1 - George W. Bush
2 - The War on Terror
3 - Israel and the conflict in the Middle East

Members on the right are united in their drive to get state legislatures to pass "an academic bill of rights" forcing institutions to have more politically diverse faculties. Given their success in changing Congress, the judiciary and the press, one has to think they will stop at nothing to force a *fair and balanced* approach on Americans.

Comments:
One of my friends is doing poli-sci courses as a conservative adult student. He's had some interesting challenges to say the very least.

One prof sent out an extreme left-wing article via email (including some nasty remarks of his own) and accidentally included my friend in the email fan out.

Being the literate sort, my friend dissected the article, including the prof's remarks, and provided factual and logical rebuttals to every point, even included references.

The prof wrote back a one-line reply to the effect that he appreciate the reply however the email was mistakenly directed to him. The prof made no attempt to debate or even address my friend's points.

I don't think it would surprise anyone to find that universities are predominantly liberal institutions.

Freedom of speech works both ways. The profs can teach what they want and Mr. Jones can response in whatever way he feels appropriate.

Perhaps now the profs will feel pressured to teach course material which is fair & balanced?
 
I hardly think that profs will feel pressure to teach course material that is fair & Balanaced. Part of the lure of the Ivory Tower is that once you are in a Tenure track position you are nearly at the top of the tower and you get to decide what you teach.
I don;t think it is fair to say that all persons involved in academia are liberal- thats an over generalization. Look outside the faculty of poli sci-
 
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