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EDITORIAL: Now, it's about UW leadership
UW officials made a serious, but predictable, mistake in backing radical teacher.
ACADEMIC FREEDOM should not be defined as the right to teach lies and pursue personal political agendas.
But that's exactly the spin University of Wisconsin-Madison officials put on the phrase, by extending full support to instructor Kevin Barrett's lunatic ideas about the attacks of Sept. 11. Readers will remember that Barrett is the UW teacher who goes around saying the U.S. government knocked down the Twin Towers and dive-bombed the Pentagon, all as a pretense to wage war on the Muslim world. Worse, he openly admits to presenting his outrageous and offensive ideas to captive students in his classes.
His rants prompted Gov. Jim Doyle and other top political leaders to call for Barrett's dismissal. The UW's answer: Barrett stays - and he has the university's blessing to teach his wacko theories to students.
PROVOST PATRICK FARRELL, in a written statement, said, “We cannot allow political pressure from critics of unpopular ideas to inhibit the free exchange of ideas. That classroom interaction is central to this university's mission and to the expansion of knowledge. Silencing that exchange now would only open the door to more onerous and sweeping restrictions.”
Board of Regents President David Walsh added, “It's a great day for academic freedom and freedom of speech.”
Yipes!
LOOK, IN THE larger scheme of things, this guy Barrett amounts to a puff of dust in a whirlwind. Only the feeble-minded would take him seriously.
And, as committed defenders of free speech, we would not inhibit in any way Barrett's right to hold and espouse his absurd notions.
But he has no legal or constitutional right to teach those views at the University of Wisconsin, at the expense of taxpayers. He did not cross a line by expressing his views in public, or on a recent radio talk show. But in our view, he does cross that line when he insists on teaching lies to students at a state institution.
By supporting Barrett's teaching, UW officials have made this issue more about them and the institution than about their screw-loose instructor.
WHETHER THE UNIVERSITY wants to take it seriously or not, there are lots of people who believe their tax dollars are being used by radicals on campuses to indoctrinate students. Under the guise of academic freedom, a leftist campus culture creates a curriculum and social atmosphere that promotes certain ideologies and disparages others. Most of the time, it may not be so overt as the Barrett situation, but rather takes the shape of an intellectually bullying environment in which only certain viewpoints are deemed acceptable. Conservative lecturers are about as welcome on campus as termites.
No one wants, for example, the legislature to dictate what ideas can be presented on UW campuses. But the people do want fair play and equal access for competing ideologies. They don't want lies taught, and they don't want instructors to undermine the values they have attempted to instill in their kids. If that's what professors call “academic freedom,” lots of taxpayers would prefer not to pay for it.
UW officials may have upheld their idea of campus independence in the Barrett case, but they certainly did not make friends among the people or their representatives in the legislature. Parents may remember this episode when it comes time to decide where to send their kids for college. And legislators may have Barrett on their minds the next time UW leaders show up with their hand out for tax dollars.
ACADEMIC FREEDOM should not be defined as the right to teach lies and pursue personal political agendas.
But that's exactly the spin University of Wisconsin-Madison officials put on the phrase, by extending full support to instructor Kevin Barrett's lunatic ideas about the attacks of Sept. 11. Readers will remember that Barrett is the UW teacher who goes around saying the U.S. government knocked down the Twin Towers and dive-bombed the Pentagon, all as a pretense to wage war on the Muslim world. Worse, he openly admits to presenting his outrageous and offensive ideas to captive students in his classes.
His rants prompted Gov. Jim Doyle and other top political leaders to call for Barrett's dismissal. The UW's answer: Barrett stays - and he has the university's blessing to teach his wacko theories to students.
PROVOST PATRICK FARRELL, in a written statement, said, “We cannot allow political pressure from critics of unpopular ideas to inhibit the free exchange of ideas. That classroom interaction is central to this university's mission and to the expansion of knowledge. Silencing that exchange now would only open the door to more onerous and sweeping restrictions.”
Board of Regents President David Walsh added, “It's a great day for academic freedom and freedom of speech.”
Yipes!
LOOK, IN THE larger scheme of things, this guy Barrett amounts to a puff of dust in a whirlwind. Only the feeble-minded would take him seriously.
And, as committed defenders of free speech, we would not inhibit in any way Barrett's right to hold and espouse his absurd notions.
But he has no legal or constitutional right to teach those views at the University of Wisconsin, at the expense of taxpayers. He did not cross a line by expressing his views in public, or on a recent radio talk show. But in our view, he does cross that line when he insists on teaching lies to students at a state institution.
By supporting Barrett's teaching, UW officials have made this issue more about them and the institution than about their screw-loose instructor.
WHETHER THE UNIVERSITY wants to take it seriously or not, there are lots of people who believe their tax dollars are being used by radicals on campuses to indoctrinate students. Under the guise of academic freedom, a leftist campus culture creates a curriculum and social atmosphere that promotes certain ideologies and disparages others. Most of the time, it may not be so overt as the Barrett situation, but rather takes the shape of an intellectually bullying environment in which only certain viewpoints are deemed acceptable. Conservative lecturers are about as welcome on campus as termites.
No one wants, for example, the legislature to dictate what ideas can be presented on UW campuses. But the people do want fair play and equal access for competing ideologies. They don't want lies taught, and they don't want instructors to undermine the values they have attempted to instill in their kids. If that's what professors call “academic freedom,” lots of taxpayers would prefer not to pay for it.
UW officials may have upheld their idea of campus independence in the Barrett case, but they certainly did not make friends among the people or their representatives in the legislature. Parents may remember this episode when it comes time to decide where to send their kids for college. And legislators may have Barrett on their minds the next time UW leaders show up with their hand out for tax dollars.
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