Conservative students sue over academic freedom

article

the University of North Carolina, three incoming freshmen sue over a reading assignment they say offends their Christian beliefs.

In Colorado and Indiana, a national conservative group publicizes student allegations of left-wing bias by professors. Faculty get hate mail and are pictured in mock "wanted" posters; at least one college says a teacher received a death threat.

And at Columbia University in New York, a documentary film alleging that teachers intimidate students who support Israel draws the attention of administrators.

The three episodes differ in important ways, but all touch on an issue of growing prominence on college campuses.

First off, many of the people involved in these claims should grow up. If a teacher is liberal, get over it. If the teacher is harsher on you or lowers your grade because of political beliefs, chat with a school administrator, but double-check all of your facts first. Sometimes schools actually do something that reeks of bias, but such events are rare. My school actually has a diversity program, which has gone to the extent that a few schoolwide mandatory diversity presentations were held, and the school hired a diversity consultant. Personally, I'd like to find out what a diversity consultant actually does; is it really that hard to tell if someone is a minority? On a different note, I believe the definition of 'diversity' has changed from "consisting of a wide range of backgrounds, beliefs, traits, qualities, or any other aspect" to "without white people". The only problem I have with my school's diversity program, other than the mandatory junk, is that they only allow "ethnic clubs" to sell food during lunch. Those two "ethnic clubs" would be the Spanish club and the club for black people. Apparently, white people do not have an ethnicity. The Yiddish Appreciation Society is a bit iffy as to whether or not they can sell food, I believe. This wouldn't normally be a terrible policy, except for the fact that the school food is terrible, and they insist on selling it to people so they will not lose money. Considering the cost of the food compared to its indelibleness, I suspect that the school actually makes a profit from food.
Now, the policy at my school was probably made by someone who isn't quite right in the head. At the very least, the food is expected to get better in a few weeks. If not, I'll try to find some way to circumvent the school rules and properly display the spirit of capitalistic competition. I hope that other schools do not have similar policies.

College is a bit different. If you are required to read something you don't agree with in college (or even highschool), live with it, or get permission to not read it. If an elementary school is requiring kids to read books like Black Like Kyra, White Like Me (yep, a book about racism, and how all white people are the devil!), that's a very different problem. The term for that problem is probably "indoctrination of the youth".

So, as this story is about colleges, it's a bit of a non-story. If teachers have a bias and are being SOBs with it, go to an administrator. If the administrators are SOB's, then you can go to court. Or, you could protest, but that is unlikely to accomplish anything.