It’s not hard to be an experienced ‘ace’ in downing the ‘clowns against free speech’ at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo because: 1) they’re so many of them, 2) they all dress alike and 3) they think they’re always right.
“Free Speech” isn’t some antique concept found in some aging paper forgotten in time. This is a machine that needs practice, encouragement, training and the freedom and room to express. Today’s academicians and administrators have little patience or respect for this founding principle of our democracy.
Many administrators and faculty alike think it is their right to talk about politics in the classroom, even in a biology class. And this is relevant to biology how? The problem is when a professor sends an apparently condescending note to his class praising one point of view and ridiculing another, what message does this send to the students? Is he exercising his ‘free speech’ or reducing a student’s rights through coercion? He is in a power position and tick him off and it will affect your grade.
In 1940, The American Association of University Professors published a statement stating roughly that faculty should keep to the topic of the subject they are teaching and refrain … apparently … from subjects not relevant, such as politics. Obviously, this was an apparent effort to restrict professors from speaking in support of the Axis powers, particularly Germany. In 1990, the A.A.U.P. reaffirmed their position. It appears that totalitarian tendencies never really left academia and apparently not at Cal Poly.
So at a minimum, this Cal Poly professor is violating the ‘ethical’ guidelines of the A.A.U.P. The professor has been asked to ‘apologize’ to his students and his dean ( who should know better) has been contacted. I expect that nothing will happen and I will have to forward the email(s) to various media starting with our local heroes : Cal Coast News.Com.
Don’t worry, the ‘clowns’ of Cal Poly breed like rabbits and becoming an ‘ace’ really isn’t all that difficult, they’re kind of like Armadillos jumping into your headlights on an old Texas road.
stay tuned!
Roger Freberg
Greg Lukianoff of the Huffington Report (a right wing e-rag) discusses this issue.