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Mar. 26, 2003
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Gone are the days when academic freedom was the watchword of
college campuses. Today, thought control is the dominant theology on
campuses, often hiding behind the mantras of diversity and
multiculturalism.
The American Enterprise magazine's survey of the political
affiliations of professors in 19 major universities confirms similar
surveys. The tally: Cornell, 166 professors registered in the
Democratic Party or another party of the left, and only six registered
with Republicans or another party of the right; the Harvard score is
50-2; Penn State 59-10; Stanford 151-17; Brown 54-3; University of
California-Berkeley 59-7; UCLA 141-9; University of Texas 94-15.
More than two-thirds of colleges and universities have speech
codes even though, at least at public universities, they are
unconstitutional. The codes are aimed at forbidding the free speech of
conservatives, Christians, and humor magazines (since the Politically
Correct brigade and the feminists have no sense of humor).
Many of the speech codes are as silly and intolerant as the
British speech code at Stockport College which made international news
by banning 40 "offensive" words and phrases. Lady and gentleman are
banned because of "class implications," history and chairman are
sexist, "normal couple" is simply unacceptable, and "slaving over a hot
stove" is offensive to the plight of real slaves.
Colleges and universities have hired highly-paid itinerant
facilitators to train incoming freshmen to feel guilty if they are
white and to think politically correct thoughts about race and
diversity. Two of the films widely used at these Soviet-style re-
education sessions are "Skin Deep," which presents intolerance and
racism as the norm in America, and "Blue-Eyed", a 90-minute tirade
designed to humiliate people with blue eyes and empower people with
brown eyes.
Get ready for the next round of leftwing Commencement speakers.
Cornell has already announced it has signed up that rowdiest of
leftists, James Carville.
Al Gore and Madeleine Albright were recent Commencement speakers
at Harvard, Robert Reich and Janet Reno at the University of
California-Berkeley, Hillary Clinton and Jimmy Carter at the University
of Pennsylvania, Gloria Steinem and Whoopi Goldberg at Wellesley. At
most prestigious colleges, students never hear a conservative
Commencement speaker.
Diversity includes requiring freshmen at Northern Arizona
University to read "Science and the Case for Animal Rights" by Steven
M. Wise so students can learn that animals can be "persons." But
multiculturalism does not permit the campus newspaper at the University
of California-Riverside to publish a cartoon critical of the large
numbers of foreign teaching assistants who speak only broken English.
Nor does multiculturalism permit criticism of Hispanic students
working for the Aztlan movement calling for revolutionary liberation
from "gringos." When the conservative campus paper The Patriot
printed a critical story, its staff was personally harassed, some
received death threats, the office was broken into, and 3,000 copies of
the magazine were stolen.
At the women's studies program at the University of South
Carolina, students must acknowledge the existence of racism, classism,
sexism, heterosexism and other institutional forms of oppression of
women before being permitted to participate in class discussions.
Alas, this is typical of the 900 women's studies courses taught
nationwide.
The textbooks in women's studies programs teach that women are the
victims of a male-dominated society, that marriage is an "instrument of
oppression," and that fathers are "foreign male elements" who stand
between mothers and daughters. This was the conclusion of an
Independent Women's Forum review of five of the most widely used
textbooks and 30 course outlines from major universities.
The obscene show touted by feminists as the way to observe
Valentine's Day, "The Vagina Monologues," will be staged on 667 college
campuses this year (up from 550 last year). The original version
eulogizes the "good rape" of a 13-year-old girl by a 24-year-old woman
who plies her with alcohol and leads her to conclude "I'll never need
to rely on a man."
At Georgetown University, the student who dared to write a
critical review for the campus newspaper was fired.
College thought control is not merely political. The attack on
morality is so savage that it sometimes even breaks into the New York
Times.
One Times headline read: "No Big Deal, but Some Dorm Rooms Have
Gone Coed," with the push coming "from gay groups that said it was
'heterosexist' to require roommates to be of the same sex." Another
Times headline described The Naked Dorm at Wesleyan University in
Connecticut, which advertises itself as a diverse, multicultural,
political active dormitory for men and women where clothing is
"optional."
Students who are victimized by the new thought control should
contact the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), an
organization dedicated to the First Amendment and academic freedom.
FIRE is piling up a series of successes in discrediting the intolerant
Politically Correct campus gestapo.
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