Gary writes today about how a community college has adopted the Academic Bill of Rights and is being attacked by its faculty. The ABOR has been mentioned here many times (most notably here and here) and people will know I'm not a fan of it. It's almost identical (#7 of the list was dropped, I don't know why) at pages 258-59 of the board of trustees' policy statement. But if the arguments against it are what David Horowitz tells us, that its inclusion would mean legislators can dictate whether creationism is taught in a college classroom, then the pro-ABOR people may win because the antis are arguing nonsense. The only argument in ABOR about curriculum is limited to "the humanities and social sciences" if you read the original at item #4. The broader protection against indoctrination has been the focus of this blog for the last six years (this is my answer to Gary's request for information from "anyone who has firsthand knowledge of professors using intimidation tactics on students." NoIndoctrination.org has done it even longer.) The best protection is to have well-read students who speak for themselves, not a balkanized faculty of Department of Conservative Studies versus Department of The Rest of the University.

Labels: higher education