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My Post on Stanley Fish's Blog; On Academic Freedom and Propaganda
Topic Started: Feb 16 2009, 03:54 PM (495 Views)
Bill Anderson
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Stanley Fish had an article on his New York Times blog today, and I have posted a reply.

http://fish.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/are-academics-different/?ref=opinion&apage=1#comments

His blog post begins with:

Are Academics Different?

Last week’s column about Denis Rancourt, a University of Ottawa professor who is facing dismissal for awarding A-plus grades to his students on the first day of class and for turning the physics course he had been assigned into a course on political activism, drew mostly negative comments.

The criticism most often voiced was that by holding Rancourt up as an example of the excesses indulged in by those who invoke academic freedom, I had committed the fallacy of generalizing from a single outlier case to the behavior of an entire class “Is the Rancourt case one of a thousand such findings this year, or it the most outlandish in 10 years?” (Jack, No. 88).

It may be outlandish because it is so theatrical, but one could argue, as one reader seemed to, that Rancourt carries out to its logical extreme a form of behavior many display in less dramatic ways. “How about a look at the class of professors who … duck their responsibilities ranging from the simple courtesies (arrival on time, prepared for meetings … ) to the essentials (“lack of rigor in teaching and standards … )” (h.c.. ecco, No. 142). What links Rancourt and these milder versions of academic acting-out is a conviction that academic freedom confers on professors the right to order (or disorder) the workplace in any way they see fit, irrespective of the requirements of the university that employs them.

~Snip~

Here is my post, which is on page 8 of the comments:

As a college professor, I agree with many of your points. Academic freedom is not a license to lie or to evade the responsibilities that I have to my students, and one of them is to present the material I have and interact with them. Using THEM as protest vehicles, which is essentially what Rancourt did is a violation of the duties that we as professors have.

With that in mind, I cannot help but be reminded of the behavior of many of your former colleagues at Duke University during the infamous lacrosse case three years ago. Not only did they enable one of the most dishonest and corrupt prosecutors in the country to seek false charges, but they did these things in the name of “academic freedom.” These professors put the lives of their students in peril, and even today many of them still insist that the North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper “whitewashed” the investigation and that the charges were legitimate.

Now, people can have their own opinions, but when we see science professors insist that the utterly miniscule probabilities really constitute “proof” that “something happened,” then we know that something is wrong in academe. These professors were not interested in the truth; they were interested in using their perches to spread political propaganda in the name of “academic freedom.”

Lest you think I exaggerate, think of this: For the first time in U.S. higher education, a college faculty was named as a reason for a defendant to seek a change of venue. Faculty members at Duke became a vehicle for promoting criminal charges that were ridiculous on their face and that went against all the known scientific and forensic evidence, yet we still hear that they did nothing wrong.

One of the unfortunate legacies that you and others like you have left in academe has been the utter politicization of the academic curriculum. The Duke lacrosse case was just one example, but it is all part of a sickening pattern: The classroom becomes a vehicle for promoting political propaganda, and it now is the norm in higher education.

— William Anderson

:bill:
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MikeZPU

Prof. Anderson: Excellent post!

The Democrats are seriously talking about imposing a
"Fairness Doctrine" ostensibly to provide political balance
over the radio airwaves. If there is a place where balance
is needed, it is in the classroom on college campuses.
If the Democrats would be willing to extend the coverage
of the "Fairness Doctrine" to include the college classroom,
I'll support it. Every time a liberal goes off on a political
tangent in class, a conservative person should be given
equal time in the same class.
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Concerned
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MikeZPU, that is a fantastic idea! The fairness doctrine advocates might reconsider after hearing that proposal.
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Baldo
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That's our Bill!
Edited by Baldo, Feb 16 2009, 09:37 PM.
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Deleted User
Deleted User

Has he heard a response from the "so called" professor yet?
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