Horowitz, author of the Academic Bill of Rights, tells The Daily what it really means and why it?s needed.
ON HIS REPUTATION OF HAVING A RIGHT-WING PLOT:
Consider the Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson. Does it affect anybody’s view of the Declaration that he was a slave owner? We live by it, yet he had an affair with a slave. Why am I an issue?
ON STUDENTS WHO OPPOSE HIS
ACADEMIC BILL OF RIGHTS:
I think the students have been misled … I’m grateful that my teachers were not political, but treated me like other students. Some feel the classroom is a political arena and (professors) single out conservative students in particular. I don’t care what kind of student it is. There’s an inequality of power between professors and students.
Students can go after each other but professors have a grade power, so they shouldn’t be adversaries to students. Like Nanny 911: kids are out of control.
ON DIVERSITY IN THE CLASSROOM:
I have not called for balance. I don’t say that if you teach biology, you should teach creationism. I would regard Marxism as crackpot, like creationism. More diversity is better education.
We’re talking about professors that don’t understand the difference between teaching and indoctrination. We’re not talking about facts, we’re talking about opinions.
There is no answer on abortion. Only a divinity could step in and say this is the right answer.
There’s a lot of Bush bashing in English classes. There are professors telling kids to vote against Bush. That’s not their place.
If a peace studies program doesn’t have a military history professor on the board, then that’s wrong.
You know Hobbes. The military sees (themselves) as enforcing peace and order. You can’t make a department out of people that are anarchists. That’s not a department. That’s just anarchists.
Women’s studies falls under this category. There should be anti-feminists. You want a dispassionate look at the subject where all sides can be entertained.
College students need to be more adult. If somebody says something that offends, you answer them.
ON CONSERVATIVES IN COLLEGE:
There is a (conservative professor) blacklist, an informal blacklist. It’s very hard to hide your politics …
Conservative kids have to hide their views and liberal kids aren’t being challenged. They think it’s okay to just smear at the conservative kids.
— Derek Thompson
