There they go again. In an editorial last week, campus conservatives inexplicably but inevitably repeated the charge that there is some kind of left-wing plot in the halls of academia to deprive them of a full education. It really seems redundant to rehash this tired controversy, but since conservatives are bringing it up again, and since conservative legislators in Colorado are actually proposing a kind of affirmative action for conservative teachers at Colorado universities, a response is called for. The fallacies in their claims become transparent when one looks at the specific arguments made by the article. Easily dismissed are the claims made regarding on-campus organizations and students. They are not classes and nobody is required to be involved with them. If Joe Eldridge decides to organize an anti-war rally, no student is required to attend it or to listen to ideas they might not agree with. The events can have biases, and anyone who wants to avoid those organizations can.
Pro-war students had the same ability to plan for and organize counter-demonstrations and pro-war activities; at least some of them did while using University resources. Incidentally, it is odd for College Republicans to complain of disrupted events, because at least one conservative disrupted an anti-war event held in Kay Spiritual Life Center last year, adorned with pro-war catchphrases. What's good for one group must apply to all others.
The authors' claims regarding actual academic settings have scarcely more merit. To be fair, Professor Kuznick's remark was wrongheaded; it's wrong to tell people who disagree with you that they are thoughtless and are giving comfort to the enemy. The validity of the conservative claims ends there, though. The idea that education comes solely from unquestioning reading of course materials betrays a misunderstanding of academics. The purpose of course materials is not that students should take them at face value and accept them whole; it is that students, in an academic setting such as AU, should examine them, analyze them, think about them, and sometimes critique them. Many sources and materials are assigned to give students a sense of different perspectives and theories that exist in regard to different subjects. Even when sources are not specifically designated as only representing different theories or approaches to an issue, students are not obligated to accept that the ideas presented are the only correct way of looking at an issue. Academic settings encourage students to do the opposite. Reading and disseminating materials is a valuable learning experience, and looking at course materials with biases offers contributions to, not detractions from, the education of college students.
The most egregious flaw in the conservatives' argument is in failing to recognize that an academic setting is not a vacuum. Assigned readings and classroom teachings are not the sole source of information available to students. First, students come to a university already with knowledge and education on a range of ideas, issues and concepts. Moreover, this school provides a multitude of sources from which to gather and acquire knowledge and education. There are a number of different on-campus publications and news sources, including the conservative American Journal. There are numerous off-campus publications and media outlets representing different points of view. There are numerous sources of all kinds in the library, and then there is the Internet. Many assignments and papers require using and analyzing these different sources. By their very nature, academic settings foster critical examination of what students read and hear in their classes, as well as elsewhere, and require students to employ those reasoning skills. The authors of the article clearly employ all of the resources and critical skills at their disposal, and if other students aren't doing so, it is not because liberalism is standing in their way. This university provides a multiplicity of views and gives students the tools and capacity to consider them all and decide which are best and which are wrong. By not acknowledging the full range of opportunities for learning, they are only telling us half this university's story.
Brian Morreale is a graduate student in the Wasington College of Law.