A Brief History of “Safe Classroom” Issues



A Context for Safe Classroom Issues

Similar Historical Initiatives

• In 1940 Bertrand Russell was denied a position at CCNY because he was an advocate of sexual freedom:

From:

“ In 1940, Bertrand Russell, the world-renowned philosopher, is offered a professorship at CCNY by the NYC Board of Higher Education. Conservative and religious leaders campaign against Russell’s appointment on the grounds that he supports sexual freedom. One Brooklyn family files a lawsuit alleging that Russell’s presence on campus might corrupt the sexual morality of their young daughter, should she attend CCNY. When the family prevails in court, Mayor LaGuardia withdraws funding for the position.”

“...the basic fact remains that, if the jurisdiction of the court is upheld, a blow has been struck at the security and intellectual independence of every faculty member in every public college and university in the United States. Its potential consequences are incalculable.”

--Howard Woodburn Chase, Chancellor, NYU (Quote from a letter in The New York Times, April 20, 1940).

• Rapp-Coudert hearings result in the dismissal of over 50 faculty members due to their perceived involvement with the Communist Party. (From )

Immediately following the furor over Bertrand Russell and during a period of heightened anti-communism, state legislators in Albany NY decide to create a joint legislative committee, the Rapp-Coudert Committee (1940-42) to examine the extent of “subversive activities” in the state’s schools and colleges.

The Rapp-Coudert investigations and the subsequent Board of Higher Education trials lead to the dismissal, non-reappointment or resignation of over fifty faculty and staff at CCNY-the largest political purge of a faculty in the history of the US. CCNY loses many outstanding teachers; most never work in academia again. The purge ends when the US enters World War II as an ally of the Soviet Union in the fight against fascism.

Related Developments Recently/Currently Unfolding

• David Horowitz has created a web site(Students for Academic Freedom) encouraging students to report infringements of their academic freedom, and thereby creating an academic blacklist. David Horowitz is organizing student groups to help disseminate his version of academic freedom as embodied in his Academic Bill of Rights and his Student Bill of Rights.

• Tim Shortell has withdrawn his bid for chair of the sociology department of Brooklyn College within the last academic year due to the furor over his atheism.

• The Georgia State Legislature has imposed the Academic Bill of Rights on state colleges and universities.

• The Higher Education Bill under consideration in Congress contains language from the Academic Bill of Rights.

• Kansas Board of Education is expected to adopt an intelligent design curriculum.

From :

A move to adopt guidelines encouraging Kansas schools to teach an alternative to the theory of evolution -- intelligent design -- gains momentum. The Kansas Board of Education has approved a draft of new science standards proposed by supporters of intelligent design. Approval is expected in October.

• The Pennsylvania State Legislature has adopted wording from Horowitz’s Academic Bill of Rights. In an effort to enforce the bill of rights, the legislature has instituted a trial procedure for faculty against whom complaints have been made. This procedure resembles that of the Rapp-Coudert hearings. (boxattop)/Pennsylvaniapage/PAHouseResolution177.htm

Why are we concerned with the Academic Bill of Rights?

The specific language of the Academic Bill of Rights can be difficult to decipher, however, it clearly suggests that grading students on their political ideology is currently tolerated in academia. Other concerns arise from how David Horowitz (the bill’s author) directs students to enforce the bill and how he talks about violations of the bill.

• In discussing the need for his version of an academic blacklist, Horowitz claims that academia has blacklisted conservatives for a long time. From The Campus Blacklist by David Horowitz | April 18, 2003:

“The most successful and pervasive blacklist in American history is the blacklist of conservatives on American college campuses, their marginalization in undergraduate life and their virtual exclusion from liberal arts faculties, particularly those that deal with the study of society itself. Because it is a blacklist enforced by academics, there has been no academic study of the problem. Consequently, the evidence regarding its mode of operation and the extent of its impact is anecdotal or confined to research that is incomplete. Nonetheless, its reality is undeniable.”

• In discussing what he means by academic freedom, Horowitz frequently uses the phrases both sides and one-sided, establishing a false dichotomy of knowledge. As an example of academic freedom violation Horowitz provides the following example from his student handbook. ( p 24

”C. Using University Funds to Hold One-sided Partisan Teachins or Conferences

Whenever you hear about a conference or event to be held on campus, take a few minutes to look over the itinerary. Are the speakers all members of the same political party or do they adhere to the same narrow perspective? For example, if the conference is on environmental issues, do all the panelists believe global warming will cause a worldwide catastrophe or do some take a more skeptical view? Pay special attention to conferences held by university departments or sponsored by the university or faculty as a whole. Student organizations do not have an obligation to represent the full range of scholarly viewpoints on a given topic, but your University does. If you discover that a one-sided conference is being held on your campus, gather together all the facts about the event and put together a press release to distribute to campus and local media”

• David Horowitz even goes so far as to instruct students to create a spreadsheet of faculty political party affiliation. Horowitz clearly states that having too many Democrats in a department is a cause for concern.

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