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UCLA alumni group targets left-wing professors
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by Kate Maternowski
Friday, January 20, 2006
An independent alumni association at the University of California-Los Angeles has offered rewards of up to $100 for students willing to out politically biased professors.
Founded by Andrew Jones, a 2003 graduate of the public university, the Bruin Alumni Association has been formed to curb "an exploding crisis of political radicalism on campus" which is "endangering the very core of UCLA — the undergraduate experience," according to the association's website.
Jones, on the group's website, says he experienced "political harassment, violence, intimidation and biased teaching" during his time at UCLA, adding his experience is "entirely typical for any student who didn't embrace political extremism."
Targets of the association, termed "radical professors," are listed by Jones under the "Dirty Thirty: Ranking the Worst of the Worst."
Some UCLA professors named on the website have publicly criticized Jones' actions, equating them with McCarthyism, and, according to University of Wisconsin political science professor Donald Downs, the criticisms are valid.
Jones, a former head of UCLA's Republican student group, has placed professors with left-of-center political views on this list of problem professors.
"What we have here is a culture clash," Downs said of Jones' attack on liberal professors. "A lot of conservatives see UCLA, which is similar to [UW], as being anti-conservative."
Downs acknowledged the existence of some political bias on college campuses, which he said tends to lean toward the left. This is becoming an issue, he said, because conservatives on campus have "less patience with this sort of thing."
The conservative website offers rewards to students who are willing to pass on information about any professors who impose their radical political beliefs in the classroom. The website boasts awards of $10 for general tips and a $100 prize in place for students who will provide lecture notes, class handouts and full tape recordings of class sessions. The group offers the use of recording equipment but warns students must obtain permission from the professor upon making the recordings.
Jones' critics have questioned his approach to the situation.
"This is not the way to deal with it," Downs said of the group's attack on UCLA professors. "The ends don't justify the means."
According to Downs, more appropriate outlets are available to students for professor-evaluation purposes. Websites offering services for students to rate their professors, for example, are in place on campuses nationwide.
UCLA also expressed its displeasure with Jones' tactics.
"The UCLA community … finds his methods reprehensible, even as we support every critic's right to freely express his or her views," UCLA Chancellor Albert Carnesale said in a release.
Carnesale also noted that the Bruin Alumni Association does not have an official relationship to either UCLA or the UCLA Alumni Association and said the university is sympathetic to faculty members who have come under attack.
According to Downs, critics putting liberal professors under fire need to approach the situation more fairly and consistently. He cited incidents in the 1990s when speech codes were being enforced at times when conservative critics were silent.
"It's disturbing that people are only unhappy when it's their ox being gored," he said.
As of press time, Jones did not return a phone call seeking comment.
Rocco Rapaldi (January 20, 2006 @ 8:21am):
Jerry Falwell's group tried this in the early 1980s conservative swing that put Reagan in office. It failed then and is likely to fail now for just the reasons Downs expresses.
Anonymous (January 20, 2006 @ 7:51pm):
It's about time...
Anonymous (January 23, 2006 @ 8:56pm):
I have a personal tie to this FIASCO. my brother is a proffesor @ UCLA. And yes he is liberal, but also very precise and truthfull in his teachings. I find it funny that a UCLA grduate(so called educated person), would dare to question other peoples methods of expression in this day & age. Obviously these professors spent a good portion of their lives becoming who they are today, wich goes little way with thoes who have not. Its always those who have not the experience who try to diminish those who do. C.G.A 619
