Much ado about nothing

Submitted by Charlie Hall (United States), Nov 13, 2002 at 02:51

Daniel Pipes asks:

"What is the long-term effect of an extremist, intolerant, and anti-American environment on university students? "

As a professor who has taught at a major state university, and now at a private university, I do not see such an environment. The professors quoted in the article are a few outliers who are mostly ignored by the rest of us. We are just trying to teach our classes, and get our papers published so we don't perish in the academic promotion and tenure rat-race.

And judging by the success of the "Divest from Israel" campaigns, the professors quoted here seem to have convinced almost no one of their position. For example, check out http://www.harvardmitdivest.org and compare to http://www.harvardmitjustice.org. Then check out http://www.columbiadivest.org and compare to http://www.columbiadontdivest.org. The nutty professors are outnumbered by huge margins -- among their students, among their fellow faculty....

There ARE in fact major problems in American academia today, but this is not one of them.

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