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St. Cloud State University
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SAF need recognized
By Amanda Degen
Published:
Monday, November 3, 2003
Senior Chad Gresowiak is trying to organize a local branch of Students For Academic Freedom on SCSU's campus.
SAF promotes intellectual diversity on campus and defends students' right to be treated fairly by professors and faculty, regardless of their political beliefs.
SAF was created by David Horowitz, a liberal turned conservative activist, who has been active in the political arena since the 1950s. Horowitz visited many college campuses and witnessed what he called "liberal bias" on many of them. Horowitz claims that many college professors and faculty mention or include politics in their classrooms, and that a majority of professors are very liberal. He states that sometimes these liberal biases play out in the classroom, leading students to either not speak up in class, or to agree with the professor in order to receive a better grade.
"Students can't get a good education if they're only telling you half the story," he said. "There are always two sides to issues, but at many colleges now, there are not really two sides."
Horowitz's Web site consists of a mission statement, along with the Academic Bill of Rights, which lists what schools should and shouldn't do in order to be politically unbiased and better equipped to handle intellectual diversity. In the mission statement, Horowitz states that "unfortunately, the atmosphere that prevails on most college campuses today does not foster intellectual diversity or the disinterested pursuit of knowledge. Liberal Arts faculties at most universities are politically and philosophically one-sided, while partisan propagandizing often intrudes into classroom discourse. Faculty bias is reflected in the curriculum of courses available, in the manner in which they are taught and in readings assigned for classroom study."
Horowitz aims to "promote fairness and inclusion in all aspects of the curriculum, including the faculty hiring process, the spectrum of courses available, reading materials assigned and in the decorum of the classroom and the campus public square."
This means that professors will still be able to state their opinions or beliefs in class, but that it must be made clear that all viewpoints on a subject will be permitted and will not affect students' grades. If a professor insults or makes fun of a political person, party or ideal, it is considered inappropriate. Also, if a professor were to place a political cartoon on his/her door for students to see, cancel class for a political movement or tries to recruit students for a political movement, that too would also be considered inappropriate.
"Unfortunately, we live in a time when we can't trust our professors, all of them," Horowitz said in a speech given last year.
Horowitz feels that there is nothing wrong with faculty members expressing their opinions, but only when it makes students feel disrespected and unwelcome is it then unacceptable.
Since its creation, SAF has built 95 chapters all over the U.S. and Gresowiak has already started the process for a local chapter on campus. Although he has received all the signatures necessary, he needs an adviser to back it up, as well as having it pass through the student government.
"I'm just concerned right now about getting the word out," Gresowiak said.
He asks that any students with experiences of personal bias on campus to contact him with their stories so that he can document instances of bias in and out of the classroom.
"Don't get me wrong, I am not claiming the majority of the faculty is biased; we have many great professors who teach accurate, unbiased information," Gresowiak said. "However, there are times when students feel they are being indoctrinated rather than being taught, and may feel intimidated from voicing their opinions."
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This is Chad, and my last name is Gresko... (11/4/03)
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