Illustrating the virtues of a free exchange of ideas is not difficult. We can look to modern understanding of virtually all fields of inquiry and find “truths” of today which could have remained undiscovered, were a questioning of conventional wisdom not allowed.
Without dissenting viewpoints and new perspectives, science majors could be in Williams learning about the spontaneous generation of mildew from bathroom tileand Political Science scholars would be discussing the divine right of kings. More accurately, LSU probably would not exist, King Foster of Franklin would be king and we’d be lucky to make it to 34, when a head cold or infected wasp sting would turn out the lights.
Thus, it causes great anxiety anytime the open exchange of ideas is questioned, or met by, self-righteous stiflers who refuse to play by its rules. We must ensure that this process of intelligent discernment, the foundation of all post-Enlightenment progress, is allowed to continue unfettered.
Convinced that our American universities are experiencing an entrenchment of one-sided, leftist viewpoints into the once-cherished Socratic environment of academia, many students have begun to organize. College Republican and Conservative groups nationwide have been showing renewed zeal in a fight for what they term “ideological diversity.”
Armed with stories about liberal reading lists and professors assaulting conservatives in classrooms, the students sense a battle brewing on American campuses.
Brad Jones, President of the College Republicans at the University of Colorado-Boulder, recently has become the poster boy for this movement. His organization launched a website where students can post specific instances of professor biases, provided that the offenses are so egregious as to infringe upon students’ free expression or to penalize their opinions with grade-book retribution.
Jones’ group was not the first to address ideological inequality (that was Students for Academic Freedom) and his website is not the first of its kind (that was http://www.noindoctrination.org), but he was able to attract the attention of the national media, with two Fox News reports this past week. Couple that with the recent actions of conservative Colorado State Senate President John Andrews, who held committee meetings in December where conservative students testified about bias, and the spotlight has suddenly been thrust on university classrooms, questioning what has been largely taken for granted — is academia in America still a place where one can express views and defend ideas freely?
This cause of the Colorado Republicans is a noble one. A brief phone conversation with Jones also laid to rest many of my fears about this being a glorified witch-hunt.
He said College Republican groups have been centers of anecdotal complaints, but that “the point here is to collect hard evidence. If [my opponents] had concrete evidence that we were just a ‘classically liberal school, they’d use it. If they’re right, if no one posts on the site, this issue will fade.”
However, the potential for blacklisting and hiring quotas based on political affiliation is a reality these new Republican warriors must acknowledge. If allowed too much power in the name of ideological diversity, the movement could undermine the very thing it supposedly espouses: the ability to freely express ideas.
A university system in which professors constantly are fearing administrative retribution, simply because of a website gripe, is hardly ideal.
Despite the hullabaloo, it appears that, for the most part, we’re still safe at LSU. Chris Boudreaux, President of the College Republican Alliance, said that he’s never experienced liberal bias from his professors, beyond an occasional joke or reference. “I have heard some complaints from my fellow students,” he said, but stated that nothing too controversial had ever been brought to his knowledge. He said that the CRA currently has no plans to affiliate with any of the nationwide organizations involved in the battle, and added, “I would never advocate anybody trying to legislate what a professor says or does.”