Maybe not every minor problem Cal Poly San Luis Obispo has with students, faculty or staff has to end up in Federal Court. I would like to hope that folks can learn from their mistakes, take advice from those who wish to make Cal Poly a better place and , hopefully, avoid stepping into it the next time.
Recently, I blogged about what many have called “Cal Poly’s Inquisition Board” to ferret out Professors and students who were deemed not “politically correct.” With the sweet sounding name of ‘Care-net’, Cal Poly was at the threshold of setting up a system whereby students and faculty would be held accountable to anonymous accusations and standards not based on law, but pernicious whim. IMHO, this would be a virtual system outside of union contracts, Cal Poly code of conduct standards and common sense… as well as the law.
F.I.R.E. ( the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education) recognized immediately the arena into which Cal Poly was entering and wrote a stern and forceful letter in defense of faculty and students at Cal Poly. The result: Cal Poly is reevaluating the Care-net program.
Here is F.I.R.E.’s latest statement!
I was able to find two cached pages of the ill fated Care-Net that are worth reading.
The only question that remains for those of us with decades of experience in dealing with Cal Poly: Will Cal Poly walk away from initiating a “Board of Inquisition”… or will they work harder to not be discovered?
In any event,there are a lot of folks watching to see the next steps Cal Poly administration takes … thanks to F.I.R.E.
Roger Freberg