Division of Labour: Academic Bill of Rights

February 02, 2005

Academic Bill of Rights

An Academic Bill of Rights has been introduced into the Ohio legislature. Where does a good conservative stand on government intrusion into a corrupted academic process?

A few excerpts

(A) The institution shall provide its students with a learning environment in which the students have access to a broad range of serious scholarly opinion pertaining to the subjects they study. In the humanities, the social sciences, and the arts, the fostering of a plurality of serious scholarly methodologies and perspectives shall be a significant institutional purpose. In addition, curricula and reading lists in the humanities and social studies shall respect all human knowledge in these areas and provide students with dissenting sources and viewpoints.

(B) Students shall be graded solely on the basis of their reasoned answers and appropriate knowledge of the subjects and disciplines they study and shall not be discriminated against on the basis of their political, ideological, or religious beliefs. Faculty and instructors shall not use their courses or their positions for the purpose of political, ideological, religious, or antireligious indoctrination.

(C) Faculty and instructors shall not infringe the academic freedom and quality of education of their students by persistently introducing controversial matter into the classroom or coursework that has no relation to their subject of study and that serves no legitimate pedagogical purpose.

Posted by at 09:16 AM

Comments

I think this is nonsense legislation, but I have to admit that I see the point. As regular blog readers know I'm frustrated at the continuing ideological indoctrination going on in universities. For private universities, of course, the legislature has no business being involved, and I assume this doesn't apply to them.

This is yet another example of the tangled web we weave when we let government funding get involved. With government funding comes government interference. All of the leftists, who will no doubt rant and rave about this idea, are just getting a taste of the medicine that they advocate for the rest of society.

Posted by: Bob Lawson at February 2, 2005 09:27 AM

The legislation is ridiculous: the only reason there can be such a large disconnect between what students need and what they recieve is an obstructed market mechanism, and alas it has been tampered with. So many degree programs that, from hearing my peers talk, exist as little more than training grounds for post modernism and anti-capitalism, mightn't be so prominent if universities weren't so heavily subsidized by the government.

Posted by: David Rossie at February 2, 2005 10:00 AM

I see the irony: this bill is so controversial that it would outlaw any discussion of itself in college classes.

Posted by: Ann Reed at February 2, 2005 12:34 PM