The College Republicans presented a preview of the movie "Brainwashing 101," a film that explores the issue of liberal biases on college campuses, on Monday night in Ward Circle Building, marking the first screening of the documentary at a university.
The preview of "Brainwashing 101" investigated three universities: Bucknell, California Polytechnic and University of Tennessee Knoxville. At the University of Tennessee a fraternity was kicked off campus after five of its white male members dressed up as the Jackson Five for Halloween. At California Polytechnic University a student was punished for posting a flier with the title of a controversial book, "It's Okay to Leave the Plantation." The campus police evicted the filmmaker, 31-year-old Bucknell alumnus Evan Coyne Maloney, for trying to research the matter.
"The fact that the administration's first response nowadays is to call the police shows that they can't defend their merits," Maloney said at the screening.
Maloney states that problems on college campuses aren't so much an issue with liberalism as they are with human nature. Too much power is in one side, which will lead to corruption, Maloney said.
"I see political correctness as a bastardization of liberalism," he said.
Some students complained that AU has a liberal bias.
"There's no doubt there's a liberal bias in the classrooms. Some professors have a tendency to promote their views in the classroom," said President of the College Republicans Mike Inganamort.
Maloney said that if there's a story here on campus that he would come and film it.
"I thought he did a good job of presenting the information as a First Amendment issue," freshman Candace Volke said. "I'm a liberal, but I don't want to go to a school speaking only about my side."
Maloney said that the best way to overcome the liberal biases on college campuses is for conservative students to get organized. Colleges will react to bad media, he says, and if students demand a refund for the amount of time a professor spends propagandizing his or her political views in class, colleges "won't give your money back, but they'll listen."
A private donor funded the nine-month production of "Brainwashing 101" with $250,000.
Maloney stated that he was expecting the audience to be slightly hostile, and almost wanted an audience that would argue more but stated that he had no complaints. Maloney plans to tour around colleges after the election with the finished version of his movie.
"I think a lot of people are still in denial that these occurrences happen on campus," he said.
