...will no doubt be making themselves heard over the next few years, since universities remain one of the few elite institutions in American society not taken over by the forces of reaction; here's what's in store (this is subscriber access only):
Oneida J. Meranto did something this semester that she had never done in her career. She tape-recorded her lecture.
The reason: self-protection. Last winter two students filed grievances accusing the associate professor of political science at Metropolitan State College of Denver of having a liberal bias and intimidating conservative students.
Although college officials found as recently as October that she had done nothing wrong, she received death threats and dozens of hateful e-mail messages. She was too frightened to walk to her car alone, so students escorted her.
Should she be accused of bias again, she wanted a record of what she had said.
Sure enough, two days after she taped her lecture, another student filed a grievance against the tenured professor.
Plainly faculty in the inherently political disciplines, like political science, will be more vulnerable to these smear campaigns and intimidation tactics. But it is good to know that the remedy for allegations of bias are death threats and hateful e-mails.
UPDATE: Thanks to a right-wing NYC tabloid, these Columbia professors can now expect similar harassment for their political views. Sadly, we have noted before the political campaign against Middle Eastern Studies that has been under way for some time. (Let me add that I know close to nothing about what goes on in Middle Eastern Studies--it could be the field is as intellectually feeble as, say, Straussianism in political theory, or postmodernism in philosophy. But it is very clear that the attack on the field has nothing to do with the intellectual merits, and everything to do with persecution of individuals for their political views, occasionally disguised with unconfirmed hearsay about teacher misconduct.)
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