Article

2004-02-06 Fifth Column

Via Bros. Judd:

COLORADO GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Ad Hoc Legislative Committee on Academic Freedom

Thursday, December 18, 2003 â 10:00 a.m. to 12:35 p.m.

Senate President John Andrews, Committee Chair

SENATOR JOHN ANDREWS: Thank you all very much for coming, Iâm John Andrews. Iâm the President of the Colorado Senate, and I represent the City of Centennial and Arapahoe County in the Senate. A provision in the rules of the General Assembly allows for informal or ad hoc committees of legislators from one or both houses to convene when the legislature itself is not in session for the purpose of hearing testimony or discussing issues of concern in an informal way that contributes to our base of knowledge and awareness of those issues that should help us prepare for the formal legislative activity which in the this case begins a little less than three weeks from now, Wednesday the 7th of January.

The purpose of our meeting this morning is to consider the protection of academic freedom in state-supported colleges and universities here in Colorado. A goal that no one would disagree on, but the implementation of that goal can be controversial, and the missing ingredient in much of the debate over the past several months seems, to some of us, to have been actual, verified experiences of students or faculty members at our fine colleges and universities across the state about whether there are adequate protections for academic freedom.

SNIP

REP. MADDEN: Witchhunt! McCarthyite! Arenât jobs and food more important???

SNIP

It was an adviser to the Political Science Association, accused the Auraria College Republicans of working with the Independence Institute at Metro State, this is not true. I can assure you that the Auraria College Republicans have had no contact with the Independence Institute until now and we will continue to work with Independence Institute on this very issue. This professor accused the College Republicans of coercing, like I say, with Independence Institute and she explicitly said in the Political Science Association meetingâitâs a student-lead organization that I quote, âRepublicans needs to withdraw from the Political Science Association.â This is very disturbing because the Political Science Association is a non-partisan student-lead organization. She is only the adviser of the students participating in all political affiliations including Republicans.

SNIP

BRIAN GLOTZBACH: I have a political science, actually a political geography class, and in my opinion it was centered pretty much to the left. The required readings, I felt were, you know, of the left and not representative of a broader viewpoint, yet goes to challenging both sides of the debate.

SENATOR JOHN ANDREWS: Did you get a mark on your course that you felt was fair?

BRIAN GLOTZBACH: You know, I have been under attack regarding my statement, but it could have been and it could not have been. I am not privy to what the judgment of the professor was, I could get a B in the class. I felt I did A work, our exams are strictly essay questions that were subjectively graded. There was no right or wrong answer, so depending on someoneâs interpretation it could have been graded differently, in my opinion.

SENATOR JOHN ANDREWS: Did you wish to tell the committee something else?

BRIAN GLOTZBACH: Well, I just want to go. You know, as for my time at Metro State and I have gotten it in the CU Boulder. I have not had any type of this stuff going in the classroom. However, I do still see the proof. I work in the campus bookstore and I have seen all the books that are required readings for the classes. I have observed that there is a distinct lack of material from any author that could be considered a conservative. Liberals on the other hand, are a little luckier. Michael Mooreâs books are required for history classes. Howard Zinn is a constant requirement. Noam Chomsky has been a required reading. My question is why is Sean Hannity never required reading. How come Bill OâReilleyâs books are not there? How come different points of view are not presented to our young men and women? Why do we need to limit opposing viewpoints and thus limit the quality of education that these students receive, and that the taxpayers of this state subsidize? Basically, what I would like to see is that we have all sides of the debate open and that no one is under represented on campus when it comes to this debate. And I feel that right now, the conservative point of view is definitely lacking on our campuses.

ANNE CLODFELTER: SNIP ...However, some professors see the classroom as an instrument with which to liberally indoctrinate the students. The professor has, in my American History, in the fall semester of 2003, was a very qualified teacher.

At that time, there was no room in her class for conservative points of view. Every day, she used the classroom as a sounding board and she insulted the president whose policies are those of Republican lawmakers. One day she got up in front of the class and told us that the president could not be an historian and be a Republican. This hurt me very much because I am a conservative and I want to be a historian. Another time, she got up in front of the class and said that President Bush started the Iraqi war because he got a hard-on. I thought this was a very inappropriate way to be talking about the president. Instead of spending on history, my professor spends a significant amount of time lecturing on current programs of the Republicans and the president. When my peers or I tried arguing and tried to question or argue against her ideas, she ridiculed them, leaving the person feeling humiliated in front of the class. One of my more outspoken conservative peers began skipping classes because as she told the teacher, she was afraid to come to class.

The teacher refused to acknowledge the studentâs fears. The political talk is one thing, I would not have to deal with her after the class is over, but I had a hard time dealing with political bias towards history. The books she chose for the class called President Reaganâs philosophy on the use of tax cuts to boost the economy, quote, âa naÃ¯ve plan.â When tax cuts worked to boost the economy, the book stated it was, quote, âGood luck.â The book and the teacher portrayed the Rosenbergâs as martyrs, and Stalin and his successors in the Soviet Union as persecuted by the United States. This bias towards history affected me as a history major because I want to leave college with an understanding of the conservative viewpoints of history as well as the liberal ones. I want to get the whole picture.

SNIP - The audio is available at the link.

Posted by Anonymous2U 2004-02-06 10:06:56 PM|| || Front Page|| [11140 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Good article. We will see how far this gets but I'm afraid it is ingrained in many of our college institutions. Some of these teachers are leftovers from the 60's and 70's.
I recently woke up to the left wing bias in our media.
It was so obvious I don't know why it took me so long to see it. NPR is another one.

Posted by dataman1 2004-2-6 10:53:51 PM|| 2004-2-6 10:53:51 PM|| Front Page Top

#2 I was part of college republicans. I went to a small liberal arts school. No one ever screwed w/us. One teacher, (looking back) was very liberal and may have crossed the line, however, most of us just laughed at her.

Posted by Jarhead 2004-2-6 11:00:57 PM|| 2004-2-6 11:00:57 PM|| Front Page Top

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