Rightwing Group Offers Students $100 to Spy on Professors
by Dan Glaister January 19, 2006 - The Guardian
It is the sort of invitation any poverty-stricken student would find hard to resist. "Do you have a professor who just can't stop talking about President Bush, about the war in Iraq, about the Republican party, or any other ideological issue that has nothing to do with the class subject matter? If you help ... expose the professor, we'll pay you for your work."
For full notes, a tape recording and a copy of all teaching materials, students at the University of California Los Angeles are being offered $100 (£57) - the tape recorder is provided free of charge - by an alumni group. Lecture notes without a tape recording net $50, and even non-attendance at the class while providing copies of the teaching materials is worth $10.
But the initiative has prompted concerns that the group, the brainchild of a former leader of the college's Republicans, is a witch-hunt. Several targeted professors have complained, figures associated with the group have distanced themselves from the project and the college is studying whether the sale of notes infringes copyright and contravenes regulations. The Bruin Alumni Association's single registered member is Andrew Jones, a 24-year-old former student who gained some notoriety while at the university for staging an "affirmative action bake sale" at which ethnic minority students were offered discounts on pastries. His latest project has academics worrying about moves by rightwing groups to counter what they perceive to be a leftist bias at many colleges.
The group's website, uclaprofs.com, lists 31 professors whose classes it considers worthy of scrutiny. The professors teach classes in history, African-American studies, politics, and Chicano studies. Their supposed radicalism is indicated on the site by a rating system of black fists. The organisation denies on the website that it is conducting a vendetta against those with differing political views. "We are concerned solely with indoctrination, one-sided presentation of ideological controversies and unprofessional classroom behaviour, no matter where it falls on the ideological spectrum."
But in another posting, it is clear just where on the spectrum the group thinks the bias might fall. "One aspect of this radicalisation, outlined here, is an unholy alliance between anti-war professors, radical Muslim students and a pliant administration. Working together, they have made UCLA a major organizing center for opposition to the war on terror."
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9 comments:
Even if we ignore the ethical implications, the fact that he has named professors "worthy of scrutiny" makes this a witch-hunt. If he was honestly looking for evidence that professors were teaching "off subject", it would be an open invitation.
Plus, how can a professor in Politics ever be off subject when talking about either Bush, Iraq or Republican ideologies? Surely that the sign of a good political professor is one who can refer his teachings back to a context thier students understand?
Do I get $100 for proving any old Lecturer mentioned Blair? Cos I could really do with a spare couple of grand:-)
I can't help thinking that this must've been happening in Soviet Russia to monitor the teachers 'correct' ideological interpretation of Communism...
But it's yet another flag warning against the apparent slide towards American Totalitarianism. What next I wonder?
"As people do better, they start voting like Republicans - unless they have too much education and vote Democratic, which proves there can be too much of a good thing." --Karl Rove
Higher Education has always leaned to the left in politics and economics. Perhaps this is because they have a well-rounded worldview that many people lack because we teach people to defend the status quo in elementary and secondary education and higher education teaches you to challenge it. That's never going to change. This whole "scare" is a farce for many reasons. Any good professor grades students based on the quality of their arguments and how well they researched their work. No matter if they disagree with your conclusions.
Laura quoted: "As people do better, they start voting like Republicans - unless they have too much education and vote Democratic, which proves there can be too much of a good thing." --Karl Rove
I heard something similar about religion... that having "too much education" makes you an atheist - therefore if you want to keep your faith you shouldn't go beyond high school. Is that way faith & Republicianism often go together - they're linked by ignorance?
"Is that way faith & Republicianism often go together - they're linked by ignorance?"
*whistling through my teeth* Damn, that's offensive.
Sadie Lou said: *whistling through my teeth* Damn, that's offensive.
Sorry about that... I'll try & dig out the article I mentioned that said too much education leads to Atheism....
ck - this whole thing is a blatent attempt to intimidate untenured professors. The theory is that a professor is less likely to get tenure if he is considered cotroversial or has a lot of complaints against him. My guess is that at an instution with a legacy of fierce academic freedom like UCLA, this tactic will backfire bigtime!
Sadie Lou - that may sound offensive, but there is a long tradition in certain segments of protestantism that in fact have been suspicious of/opposed to education, for he same reason they oppose unions. They view it as a potential challenge to their authority. This is especially true in the Mennonite and Southern Baptist traditions.
GWB - Thanks for your comments... and welcome back.
Kenspeak: If you insist that I dig up a reference, I can, but I think the unsupported assertion that education achievement shows a strong correlation with progressive values should be generally acceptable. Demographically speaking, college professors tend to be more socially and fiscally liberal than non-professors in their age/sex/geographical cohort.
Humanspeak: Education usually makes you more liberal. College professors tend to be more liberal than the people they grew up with.
Kenspeak: It is arguable that, in a college environment, a professor is lent a broad air of authority that extends to topics outside of his/her professional training and experience. Professors' expression of their opinions on politically sensitive topics in the context of the classroom is fraught with concommitant ethical considerations: it is possible that students placed into such a situation might worry that taking contrary positions would negatively affect their professor's evaluation of their academic progress (or that it would, in fact, have this effect), that students might consider such extrinsic discussion-- particularly if they hold opposing views--to be an unacceptably uncomfortable component of the classroom experience, or that students would be placed in a position where the color of authority inherent with the role of teacher might spread into other spheres to inculcate pupils' beliefs with the stamp of the expressed opinions as the unanalyzed acceptance of fact. For these reasons, many universities discourage this sort of behavior and, though tenured professors generally have the right to expound on any topic they wish, I feel it is wrong that they do so. I say this despite the fact that it is probable that I would share the opinions predominate among academics, particularly the opinions that the ratings that have been described here indicate that these opinions would be protest the political stance of the current administration, its policy, and the general record of the President.
humanspeak: Professors' opinions on things outside their field are inappropriate subjects for the classroom because being in charge of the class means that they might put students into uncomfortable positions. Students might think arguing would affect their grades, and they might be right. Students might mistake the professors' opinions for fact because the reason that they are in the class in the first place is for the professors to present them with the facts. While it is condoned on as an aspect of academic freedom, I do not think it is right even though I think I'd probably agree with them (especially if they were against Bush0.43).
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