Response to Mr. Caughran

Submitted by Rick Bright (United States), Nov 20, 2002 at 05:16

So you believe that supervision of faculty who run amok with leftist, anti-American ideologies is "scary." What scares me is not Dr. Pipes' suggestion, but the reality that already exists on the vast majority of college campuses across America: ideological apartheid. During the past 30 years the Left has consolidated its power on college campuses so successfully that it now enjoys a virtual monopoly over academic discourse and faculty hiring.

Exceedingly qualified professorial candidates are routinely rejected because they fail the hiring committees' liberal litmus test. One candidate was about to be hired when he revealed to his interviewers (interrogators?) that he supported the proposal of private school vouchers. Of course, he was shown the door, even though the interviewers openly admitted that he was certainly the most qualified candidate. A poll conducted by David Horowitz (FrontPageMagazine.com) revealed that an excess of 90 percent of all tenured positions are now occupied by acknowledged liberals. This finding should hardly be surprising to anyone who has set foot on a college campus in the past three decades. Conservative speakers, on the rare occasions they are even invited to campuses, are routinely treated with intimidatingly boorish behavior by audiences which apparently have the encouragement of faculty and tacit approval of administrators to shout down anyone whose opinions they disagree with. Then there was the ultimate outrage on September 11, when a number of universities banned the display of the American flag after the attacks.

No environment could be more antithetical to academic integrity and authentic liberalism. Of course now that attention is finally being paid to this widespread suppression of speech and ideas, campus liberals are crying foul.

While you may be frightened by Mr. Pipes' proposal, I find renewed hope that a fresh breeze may yet waft through the stagnant, oppressive halls of ivy.

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