Campus Culture Wars
It wouldn’t shock anyone reading this blog if I said that college campuses weren’t friendly territory for Christians or conservatives. After the Bennish incident, we shouldn’t be shocked about the fear tactics that teachers employ or that they’ll gladly attempt to intimidate students.
That doesn’t mean I have to sit idly by when I read about teachers harassing students like I did this morning. A campus watchdog group named The Reality Check on Campus has posted an article about the University of Iowa Med School and the intimidation that’s going on there. Trust me when I say that it’s must reading. Here’s a picture of what recently happened at the University of Iowa Med School:
University of Iowa medical students and faculty held a forum on February 28th to discuss concerns that have been raised regarding bigoted and aggressive behavior on the part of liberal professors toward conservative and religious students there, creating a hostile learning environment.
According to new reports that were brought to light at the forum a staff physician while in the operating room made “pretty strong” comments which openly ridiculed and demeaned the Mormon faith of one of the students he was responsible for evaluating. A third year student recalled a professor’s comments made in the lecture hall immediately following the 2004 election that “anyone who voted for Bush is an idiot.” One professor even required all his students to refer to the medical procedure of circumcision as the political term “male genital mutilation”.
Simply put, this isn’t acceptable behavior on the professors’ part. Furthermore, this shouldn’t be tolerated. There should be a zero tolerance policy in place to deal with this type of intimidation and for any demeaning diatribes about a person’s religious beliefs or political philosophy. A teacher’s job is to educate his or her students in the subject matter that they signed up for.
To have a med school teacher ranting about politics and how people vote isn’t acceptable on a professional level. It’s one thing to have political debates in political science class. It’s quite another when a med school teacher goes off on a tangent on politics.
Students also expressed concern that the intolerant atmosphere engendered by the faculty and permitted by the administration has emboldened fellow liberal students to follow suit and partake in similar acts of aggressive and disrespectful behavior thereby further exacerbating the problem and creating a divide between the student body.
If you think that’s bad, it gets worse:
This starkly conflicts with the University’s position, echoed by the Des Moines Register in their report dated February 20, 2006, that they “have heard nothing from anybody” and that this “looks like one person saying the same thing over and over again”;
That’s a line if ever I heard one.
and may even indicate an attempt by the University to cover up this issue which had been brought to their attention from different students on numerous occasions prior to it being picked up by the media.
In other words, the University was putting the most imaginitive spin on the disgusting attitude and atmosphere on the med school campus. First, they try denying that anything’s happening, then they hint that it shouldn’t be taken seriously because it’s probably just a single hothead repeating the same thing over and over again. All this happened even though they knew of all the different complaints that were aired at the conference.
If I didn’t know better, I’d say that those administrators were (a) lying through their teeth and (b) covering up a politically explosive atmosphere on campus. There’s no way on God’s green earth that we should tolerate this. After all, these students are the professors’ bosses because they, along with Iowa taxpayers, pay the teachers’ salaries. Instead, these professors seem to think that they can do whatever they want to and, until now, they’ve been right because the administration doesn’t seem willing to confront the issue.
It seems to me that the surest ‘disinfectant’ in this situation is to focus a big spotlight on the University, the professors and the administration. They work for us, not vice versa.
It’s obviously going on across the U.S. It’s time that we took this cultural issue on squarely and forcefully and finish radical liberalism. Mind you, old-fashioned liberalism that Patrick Moynihan practiced or that Christopher Hitchens still practices is more than acceptable. What’s unacceptable is when you have to deal with intolerant, hate-filled liberals.
Cross-post at LetFreedomRing
March 14th, 2006 at 12:10 pm
You are, of course, right on with your analysis. The liberal mindset/mouth-off has a rightful place in our society. The mindset should be expressed in the proper setting for debate. The mouth-off, when practiced in the classroom, should be put in its place: the dumpster.
Profs who take the tack that they are free to express their opinions anywhere, anytime, should be allowed to do so but not at taxpayers’ expense. They should either teach their subjects or move to private campuses (campi?) and indoctrinate from that position. While they are in the employ of the taxpayer, they should respect the will of the people to teach, not indoctrinate.
It’s almost an attitude that one finds with the NIMBY crowd: I’ve got mine, and no one else will be allowed to participate. For advocating openess, libs sure have a problem with disagreement.
March 14th, 2006 at 1:08 pm
Your comment (below) needs a bit more critical thought. As does the issue altogether.
“After all, these students are the professors’ bosses because they, along with Iowa taxpayers, pay the teachers’ salaries.”
College is a place for people to come into contact with opinions, ideas, and subjects that are new and, yes, even controversial. This is the grown up world. These things exist. This does not mean that students should sit, dumbly agreeing with or taking others’ opinions as their own. Ah, ha. Learning, listening, synthesizing, and then making critical judgment on issues. Yes, this is what college students do.
There is such a thing as academic freedom, and you need to look into what that means to better educate yourself in this area. Professors, like anyone else, are entitled to their political, religious, or societal opinions, and they can even discuss them in class. This does not detract from students rights, and it could even be relevant to the class work. Now, if the professor name calls, demeans, or punishes a student for the student’s beliefs or because a student disagrees with the professor, then there is conflict with rights of students. Should professors try to convert people? No, that’s not the course objective. Should professors get people thinking about issues relevant to class subjects? Yes, even if all students do not agree. Should professors discuss politics in a math course? Here’s where the line gets drawn. Professors should devote class time to meeting the course objectives. Most do, and some don’t.
Professors, for the most part, do teach subjects, and the idea that they are ALL liberal or all brainwashers is a sweeping generalization. The same would be true to argue that, based on a couple incidences, all professors are conservative Christians trying to convert students. You need to better qualify your claims. There are many individuals out there, professing, and some do make comments that are offensive or that proselytize (and they can be liberals or conservatives or those mostly unheard of libertarians, like the South Park people). And, actually, there are students, again of all varieties, who like to take political, religious, etc, grandstands in class, too. Again, these can be relevant to class and they could be something good to hear so that we all have better ideas about how others are thinking and making decisions.
Perhaps, rather than going on a firing spree or subjecting professors to McCarthy-era keep your beliefs to yourself mentality, what students, administrators, and professors could work on is better communication and more open forums. In the university culture, especially with first and second year students who are very much dualistic and then very much multiplistic (check out Perry’s Model of Cognitive Development), it is hard for them to realize that there is give and take. That the answers from authority are not always correct. Or, that the answers from a “liberal†are, automatically, not correct. Midwestern students are notoriously passive this wayâ€â€a cultural thing and documented. Professors can also be very proud people who don’t always listen to a student’s view point. EVERYONE needs to do some work here.
March 14th, 2006 at 1:51 pm
Circe, While I agree that teachers should and must hold to their beliefs, that isn’t my beef here.
When a med school professor says that “anyone who voted for George Bush is an idiot”, we’ve now stepped well outside acceptable behavior. If you didn’t notice, I wrote about harassment and intimidation in the classroom, not the free flow of ideas. What do you think I meant when I put this section into the article:
Students also expressed concern that the intolerant atmosphere engendered by the faculty and permitted by the administration has emboldened fellow liberal students to follow suit and partake in similar acts of aggressive and disrespectful behavior thereby further exacerbating the problem and creating a divide between the student body.
Furthermore, I definitely don’t agree that “EVERYONE needs to do some work here.” That’s a lame rationalization if ever I heard one. The reality is that the students that attended that conference have voiced serious fears of retribution because of their political and religious beliefs.
Something else that must be considered in all this is that these professors’ hostility isn’t just a difference of opinion. Their behavior sounds much like how the Fever Swampers act. Based on what these students said in the conference, I’d say that all of the changes needing to be made must come from the professors.
As for the McCarthy line, let’s be serious. You say that “Perhaps, rather than going on a firing spree or subjecting professors to McCarthy-era keep your beliefs to yourself mentality, what students, administrators, and professors could work on is better communication and more open forums.” That’s nonsense. Going on Bush-hating diatribes has nothing to do with med school. It’s a professor expressing his/her hatred. If they want to have those views and express them, then they must be done outside of a med school classroom.
Finally, these professors’ beliefs should be anchored in reality. Instead, they’re anchored in hatred and blind ideology. That’s hardly worthy of debate, especially at a university post-graduate school.