GOODY TWO SHOES: Free Speech For Me, But Not For Thee


The Washington Times reports on the progress that David Horowitz has made to promote his Academic Bill of Rights – and the inevitable backlash by liberals who claim to be the true defenders of free speech and diversity on campus:

 

Three years ago, David Horowitz came to Colorado to promote his newly inked Academic Bill of Rights, a plan the radical-turned-conservative activist said was needed to liberate students from an oppressive atmosphere of liberal groupthink at the nation's universities. …

 

A few months later, the Colorado legislature became the first to broker a deal with state universities on policies to protect students from political discrimination.

Since then, the Academic Bill of Rights, which says students should be graded and faculty should be hired and promoted without regard to their political or religious beliefs, has inspired the introduction of legislation in 18 states. Ohio and Tennessee struck deals with their universities on protecting academic freedom in lieu of legislation.

Meanwhile, Students for Academic Freedom, the campus watchdog group founded by Mr. Horowitz, has established chapters on more than 150 campuses. Student governments at a dozen universities have approved resolutions supporting the Academic Bill of Rights.

In April, Princeton University became the first institution of higher learning to pass a version of the Student Bill of Rights by a vote of the entire student body, surprising even Mr. Horowitz, who had no hand in the election.

"I didn't engineer that. They took the Academic Bill of Rights I designed, made their own Student Bill of Rights and got it passed," said Mr. Horowitz, who visited Princeton shortly after the plebiscite. "That shows it's taken on a life of its own." …


Mr. Horowitz's success with state legislatures has caught the attention of the left. The Center for American Progress, funded by Democratic billionaire George Soros, last year started Campus Progress, which follows the conservative movement at universities.


In February, a coalition of teachers unions and civil-liberties groups, including the center, founded Free Exchange on Campus, an organization designed to counter Mr. Horowitz and his quest. …

 

On its face, few would disagree with the Academic Bill of Rights, a two-page document that outlines principles protecting the free-inquiry and free-speech rights of professors and students while stressing the importance of intellectual diversity.

It says that professors should use their class time for education -- not indoctrination -- and that neither the political nor religious beliefs of students and faculty should be a factor in grades or promotion.

The Stiletto just loves the names the thought police have come up with for their organizations: Campus Progress, Free Exchange on Campus. The epitome of  doublespeak.  

Posted by The Stiletto at July 4, 2006
Categories: Goody Two Shoes
 

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