Does Ms. Bier hear herself?

Submitted by Pat (United States), Apr 18, 2006 at 11:53

"I think of the career that I dreamed about during endless years of graduate school and dissertation writing that might be destroyed. It is in that moment that I choose between educating my students and saving my own hide. And it is in that moment that those who want to stifle debate on campus win. They don't need to get me fired to shut me up. I'm already doing it to myself. And I know I'm not alone. I talk all the time with untenured friends and colleagues about how our attempts to be cautious in the classroom too often translate into self-censorship."

How many moderate/conservative professors can make the same argument? My guess is quite a few. Presenting alternative viewpoints is a no-no if those arguments don't conform to leftist dogma.

When Ms. Bier stands up for the rights of all students to explore alternative viewpoints and debate them honestly without being condemned by left-leaning professors, then her arguments might have more merit. If, after she gains tenure, she is willing to vote for tenure for professors who don't share her own political viewpoint, then her arguments might hold more validity.

Indeed, if the scholarship comes to mean more than the politics of others, then the university can do what it was meant to do: educate.

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