Last week, we looked at an alarming trend. Conservative politicians are trying to mold public universities to reflect their own extreme social and political viewpoints. We continue exploring that important topic this week.
Conservatives have long whined about "them damned librul universities". Many on the right believe that poor, impressionable students are indoctrinated with socialist and progressive propaganda when they go off to college. In our last blog, we pointed to examples of politicians trying to legislate-away this imaginary problem by micromanaging courses, dictating ideological balance on faculties, and pushing for taxpayer funding of more far-right lecturers.
These attempts of big government to interfere with our world-class universities are not just a few isolated occurrences. It is an organized and orchestrated movement. For example, the national Republican platform states: "Their (universities') excellence is undermined by an ideological bias deeply entrenched within the current university system. ... in state schools the trustees have a responsibility to the taxpayers to ensure that their enormous investment is not abused for political indoctrination."
Most party platform resolutions are meaningless. They usually reflect the most extreme positions of a party's fringe. However, when a country (or state) is totally controlled by one party, the craziest platform ideas often become law.
No less ominous is a 2015 Wisconsin State GOP platform resolution, which "Supports academic efforts that ensure that the presentation of our history, founding principles and religious heritage in our educational institutions, including those of higher learning, is objective, truthful and complete."
It appears that conservative state politicians are determined to impose a curriculum on Wisconsin universities that reflect their own versions of the truth in history, politics, and religion. What could go wrong with that? Can you imagine a UW history course written by Bob Gannon, Mary Lazich, and Dan Knodl? A comparative religion course approved by Scott Walker and Rebecca Kleefisch?
I am not being paranoid. It has already started. In last week's blog, we pointed-out several real cases of meddling in university curricula by right-wing Wisconsin politicos.
The nation's new Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, is certainly on board with conservative attempts to take-over higher education. At last month's CPAC meeting, she spoke of a paranoid ideological fight against the "education establishment": "How many of you are college students? The fight against the education establishment extends to you too. The faculty, from adjunct professors to deans, tell you what to do, what to say, and more ominously, what to think. They say that if you voted for Donald Trump, you’re a threat to the university community."
It is not just politicians. Several well-funded political organizations are also trying to shape college campuses into far-right Fantasylands. The group, Campus Reform, a project of the Leadership Institute, calls itself a "watchdog" to expose liberal "bias and abuse on the nation's college campuses." It aims "to report on the conduct and misconduct of university administrators, faculty, and students."
In the worst traditions of Joe McCarthy, Campus Reform's website offers a mechanism for disgruntled conservatives to report "leftist abuse". Among a lengthy list of examples of such reportable liberal sins are:
"Exams that assume a leftist agenda to be correct."
"Large numbers of courses presented that explicitly in their catalog descriptions push leftist ideology, but no balance of conservative principles offered in the curriculum." and
"Mandatory seminars for students on how to have “safe sex” with little or no mention of the possibility or merits of abstinence or marriage."
Another similar group that is trying to remake universities into conservative havens is Turning Point USA . This group's mission is to "identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote the principles of freedom, free markets, and limited government."
Among TP USA's projects is the McCarthyite Professor Watch List which outs educators deemed to be insufficiently conservative. The list, which includes instructors from UW-Whitewater, Milwaukee, and Madison, is meant to provide "the specific incidents and names of professors that advance a radical agenda in lecture halls."
A well-organized movement is working to mold public college campuses into centers of far-right ideology. GOP politicians at both the state and national levels have bought-in. Well-funded conservative organizations exist to train, support, and grow right- wing campus groups. Several of these outfits are using McCarthyite tactics to lib-shame faculty and administrators deemed to be ideologically impure.
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