Alumni Group Targets 'Radical' UCLA Professors

[Acebass]

http://www.click2houston.com/education/6214859/detail.html

Can we make a difference? Please visit this page and answer the poll. So far they have a majority that thinks it's fine to tape record Liberal professors and target them for teaching liberal principles...can we turn this poll around. I'm spreading the woprd , lets show them their wrong!


Alumni Group Targets 'Radical' UCLA Professors
Group's Web Site Lists 30 Professors

POSTED: 11:39 am CST January 18, 2006
UPDATED: 11:49 am CST January 18, 2006

LOS ANGELES -- An alumni group is offering students up to $100 per class to supply tapes and notes exposing professors who allegedly express extreme left-wing political views at the University of California, Los Angeles.

One of the professors calls it McCarthyism.

The year-old Bruin Alumni Association says it is concerned about professors who use lecture time to press positions against President George W. Bush, the military and multinational corporations, among other things.

Its Web site has a list of what it calls the college's 30 most radical professors.

[marmar]

1. Done...

Apparently there are lots of early-rising freeper freaks today.

[ProfessorGAC]

2. I Say "Bring It On"

I guarantee that everyone of those folks on the list could provide background, research, and data in support of their positions. You can't get rid of people for expressing opinions based upon facts and analysis.

The Professor

[TallahasseeGrannie]

3. I have a different take on this

I think any professor should expect his/her lectures to be taped and reviewed. It is a good evaluation technique.

And then it depends on the content. If he/she is supposed to be teaching quantum physics and spends his time railing against the President or for that matter, pimping FOR the President, he/she needs to be brought to task.

I personally think it is preferable for the prof's political views to be kept private. The college podium should not be a soapbox; it isn't what you pay for. And the same goes for the right. Also, I prefer a prof whose views I don't know because then when I write a paper I do an honest job and not try to curry favor by kissing up with arguments for his/her political views. My paper should be judged on its writing, flow, research, organization, defense of views, etc.

I went to an art school and had a similar problem with profs who demanded we paint in their style. Very tiresome. And woe be to anyone who bucked that system. You failed. That isn't education, it is indoctrination. And it is wrong.

I think we Dems might want to give this concept some second thought, because it appears at the moments that the RW is gaining ground everywhere. We need to have the mechanism in place to remove RW nuts from the classroom in the future. It works both ways, and if we squawk too much about accountability, we are defenseless when legions of wingnuts take the podium.

[Acebass]

5. True, But!

True it is a double edged sword, and radical professors on both side should teach a well rounded curriculum, however this group is specifically targeting anyone who teaches a liberal agenda. That in my book in anarchy.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

6. Yes, they really should target

any prof who does not deliver content and delivers rhetoric. It would certainly make their group more justifiable.

[Bridget Burke]

9. This group's specific target is "liberal" professors.

But that's only one of their issues. Check out their site:

www.bruinalumni.com/

[Acebass]

12. I found this very interesting

Just an atta boy but ...


http://www.bruinalumni.com/andrewpraise.html

[zanne]

10. Exactly.

They're only targeting leftist "radical" professors. Somehow, the Republicn party managed to control the use of the word "radical" way back in the 60's. We've got to start using the word "radical" with "Republican" more often and in the national media.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

16. Give it back to them in full measure.

They want to mess with academic freedom; it works both ways.

[tishaLA]

13. As someone who teaches at UCLA

let me offer a different opinion. I have never met a professor who penalizes a student for writing a paper with ideas that are anathema to his or her own; instead, professors want students who challenge themselves enough and care about the educational process enough to have their own thoughts. That's why I became an academic: I wrote papers "against" my professors and they liked that I worked against their hegemony with my own distinctive point of view.

The problem, though, is that sometimes student papers are awful--they have poorly constructed arguments, they use specious logic, they speak in generalities, etc. These are the papers, I believe, we hear about when we hear students complain about "liberal bias," but students are just as likely to say that professors are biased against them because they are in a fraternity or sorority, because they are men (or women), or because they belong to another group that sees itself as a target of the professor. It's part of the martyrdom students embrace all the time.

I teach literature and women's studies classes and, I can tell you, my classes are political. Hell, I teach antebellum American political writing. I talk about sexuality and politics. I talk about gender. There is no way I can do this without engaging in the political realm.

If you look at the site, you will find that it doesn't target people in "hard sciences," and I can tell you nobody in the sciences at UCLA believes in so-called intelligent design...so perhaps they should target those people. But instead they have turned their attention to the Law School and the Arts and Sciences. There are many reasons for this I won't bother discussing now, but it is safe to say that these attacks are part of the Bruin Alumni Association's own political agenda.

I don't doubt that world-weary, weak professors sometimes give punitive grades to students who disagree with them, but I have never encountered one...and I am willing to bet I have been in higher education much longer than most people on DU.

[moc]

15. Bingo. ITA...nt

[Acebass]

18. Thanks

Glad to hear from the academic community. The ramification of such a group as this is frightening, should their actions meet fruition. They would stiffle any discourse...

[moc]

14. Hard to do in my field...(m)

I am a professor, and I teach in a graduate program in public health (in Texas). My area of expertise is social inequalities in health. Obviously, it's hard to keep liberal politics out of it.

For the record, most but not all public health graduate students are liberal leaning.

I think there's a difference between spouting off liberal views in a freshman chemistry class, for example, versus sharing your opinions in an appropriate graduate education forum.

[waiting for hope]

4. Done....

What do you think about the alumni group's plan to target some UCLA professors?
Choice Votes Percentage of 1617 Votes
I think it's a great idea. 920 57%
I think it's a form of McCarthyism. 647 40%
I'm not sure.


Can't believe that percentage! WTF?

[Acebass]

7. added 30 plus

What do you think about the alumni group's plan to target some UCLA professors?
Choice Votes Percentage of 1692 Votes
I think it's a great idea. 969 57%
I think it's a form of McCarthyism. 672 40%
I'm not sure. 51 3%
Thanks for taking part in our s

[newyawker99]

8. Hi Acebass!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Acebass]

11. Thanks

I have a very good friend from NY, thanks for the welcome.:hi:

[mnhtnbb]

17. Official UCLA Alumni Association response

As an alum of UCLA (undergrad and graduate degrees)and lifetime member of the UCLA Alumni Association, I e-mailed them yesterday to express my hope that they were doing everything legally possible to not only discourage the witch-hunt tactics of this group, but to require this group to disclaim any official connection to UCLA.

Here is their official position (I had to type the link--it wouldn't go directly, nor would it copy/paste)

www.uclalumni.net/eNewsletters/Connect/Feb06/BAA.cfm

Excerpt:

A small, independent alumni group formed to attack "radicalism" at UCLA is calling itself the “Bruin Alumni Association”. This group is not affiliated with the campus or the UCLA Alumni Association. In fact, several months ago, UCLA required that the group add disclaimer language to its Web site and solicitation materials.

In recent days, this group has distributed a student solicitation offering to pay students to provide it with copies of recorded lectures from a target list of faculty. Students may not, however, do this without the approval of the faculty member and the Chancellor, or they will be in violation of campus policy. Our campus counsel is responding to this latest development, as well, and we are communicating with students, so they are aware of the policies.

It is important to note, however, that while UCLA has and will continue to be aggressive with this and any other group that misrepresents its relationship to the campus or otherwise encourages students to violate campus policies, this group is within its rights to communicate its point of view. UCLA is a public university, and is subject to the constraints imposed upon it as they pertain to the rights of free expression.

<snip>

[Poll_Blind]

19. And you can "turn in" professors critical of Israel's involvement...

...in world politics right here. Nice how these organs spring up, grass-roots style. Or maybe it's astroturf, they look so much alike...


PB

[Acebass]

20. I'm having a hard time with this

Do you believe there are this amny people who think this is right...
Either that or the freeper patrol has us beat again...


What do you think about the alumni group's plan to target some UCLA professors?
Choice Votes Percentage of 1766 Votes
I think it's a great idea. 1017 58%
I think it's a form of McCarthyism. 698 40%
I'm not sure. 51 3%
Thanks for taking part in our survey!