Committee investigates campus bias allegations

A committee on academic freedom in Pennsylvania is touring the state, assailed by critics with comparisons to the 1950s McCarthy hearings and finding support from conservative voices, all the while sparking a nationwide debate about politics in the classroom.

The Pennsylvania state legislature -- led by Rep. Gibson Armstrong (R-Lancaster County) -- established the committee following accusations from students at Pennsylvania public universities of liberal bias in the classroom. The body is charged with investigating the claims and reporting its findings and recommendations by November.

While the committee's report will not affect Penn's faculty directly -- private institutions are not under state jurisdiction -- many professors are already speculating on the implications of the investigation.

"For many academics, it does conjure up memories of the 1950s, when state legislatures did try and sometimes succeed in having tenured faculty removed from positions because of political views," Rogers Smith, chairman of the Political Science Department, said.

But supporters of the hearings say the focus is on examining both political bias among faculty and whether students feel intimidated if they hold views different from their professors'.

"Professors have an obligation not to indoctrinate their students in the classroom. They should teach students how to think, not what to think," said Sara Dogan, the national campus director of Students for Academic Freedom, which has been a strong supporter of the hearings.

During the hearings, committee members have heard from administrators and students as well as representatives from education lobbying organizations.

Since the Pennsylvania legislature voted last July to establish the committee there have been two official hearings, and two more are scheduled for later this year.

David Horowitz, a conservative author and commentator, is the leading voice of support for the hearings. He believes that a lack of political diversity among faculty is part of the problem, citing Penn professor Michael Eric Dyson's class on hip-hop culture as an example.

"How did [Dyson] get hired?" Horowitz said. "How did he get put in such a position? [This class] is an intellectual disgrace. ... I will tell you that I think the root cause of this problem is the politicization of the hiring process of Penn faculty over the last 30 years."

Most universities in Pennsylvania already have guidelines for academic freedom established by the American Association of University Professors, a higher education advocacy group.

But Horowitz and his supporters believe universities have been lax in following these guidelines and that pressure is needed from a higher authority.

"I don't think legislatures can fix university problems," Horowitz said. "The idea of the legislature is to prompt university administrators to do the right thing."

But with two hearings already completed, opinion on whether compelling evidence of bias exists is still in question for some committee members.

"This is a solution in search of a problem," state Rep. Dan Surra (D-Clearfield County, Elk County) said. "What I hear them saying is that conservative students are not allowed to speak, that they're discriminated against because of their views. We have found absolutely no evidence of this."

Surra also said that his failure to find proof is borne out by many of his Democratic and Republican colleagues.

For Horowitz, though, this doubt is exactly the problem.

"The universities are in denial. There's a total unwillingness to look into it without prodding from the legislatures," Horowitz said.

But despite the investigations and national media coverage, Penn Political Science professor Henry Teune doubts the hearings will lead to any significant changes.

"I don't think it'll matter very much," Teune said. "In order to get a little bit of attention, you have to go to a great extreme."

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