Students for Academic Freedom to host panel on teacher bias
Students for Academic Freedom, an education watchdog group, will hold a panel on bias in the classroom and academic freedom on Monday in the Letts Hall Formal Lounge.
Josh Kraushaar, the president of AUSAF and an Eagle columnist, will be moderating the event. The event will feature professors Philip Brenner (School of International Service), Peter Kuznick (College of Arts and Sciences), Robert Lerman (CAS) and Mark Walker (SIS). The College Republicans and College Libertarians are cosponsoring the event.
According to a press release, "As the war in Iraq last year demonstrated, many professors had to decide whether they should advocate a certain point of view, skip class to attend rallies or remain entirely objective in the classroom. We want to know: What is the professor's role in a politically charged classroom?"
Kraushaar said that he hoped students, faculty and the general public will attend so they can learn about academic freedom, professors' responsibility in encouraging debate and if AU has "an academic freedom or free speech problem."
The panel discussion will start at 6:15 p.m. and is open to the student body, faculty and general public.
- DAVID HODGES
WAMU receives $250,000 bequest from late D.C. journalist
WAMU 88.5 FM received its largest donation since the station opened in 1961 - a $250,000 bequest from the estate of the late D.C. journalist, Ellen Wadley Roper.
"We appreciate Mrs. Roper's distinguished career in journalism in the nation's capital and are proud that her support of WAMU will enable us to continue her legacy," said AU President Benjamin Ladner in a press release.
"WAMU continues to build meaningful relationships with our listeners," said Walt Gillette, WAMU's director of Individual Giving, according to the press release. "We are pleased to recognize Mrs. Roper publicly and to demonstrate the vital role WAMU and public radio play in our community."
Roper died Jan. 20, six years after her husband, James E. Roper - another distinguished journalist who broke the story on the death of Benito Mussolini and his mistress. She had met him while they were both working for the Washington bureau of CBS News in 1958. She is survived by the widow of her late brother, two nephews and a niece.
"The bequest is a tremendous boost for WAMU and will have a great impact on the station," said David Taylor, acting executive director of WAMU, in a press release.
Roper graduated from the University of Arkansas and spent two years overseas at the end of World War II working in London and Germany. She then came to the District, where she worked at WTOP-AM, CBS News, the American Red Cross, and Wilson-Wadley Enterprises, a public relations firm she founded. From 1958 until she retired in 1984, she worked at CBS News in Washington as a producer. Her production work further extended in both television and radio, as she worked as a co-producer of the television show "Face the Nation" and radio programs "Washington Week," "The Leading Question" and "Capitol Cloakroom."
Licensed to AU, WAMU 88.5 FM is the leading public radio station for National Public Radio news and information in the Washington, D.C., area, providing listener-supported news, talk, public affairs and cultural programming to more than 450,000 listeners, according to the Web site.
- STOKELY BAKSH
