Bill aims to limit debate in class
By JOE FOLLICK Gainesville (FL) Sun February 25. 2005
TALLAHASSEE - Battling what he calls a "quiet prejudice" against conservative views on university campuses, a Florida lawmaker is proposing a "bill of rights" that some claim is an effort to stifle the academic freedoms the bill seeks to protect.
Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, filed House Bill 837 after he attended a meeting last year in St. Louis where well-known conservative activist David Horowitz railed against liberal biases on campus toward professors and students. The bill borrows heavily from a template used in similar bills filed nationwide with the help of Horowitz's group, Students for Academic Freedom.
House Bill 837 promises to protect "free inquiry and free speech within the academic community." Part of the bill says that students should not have their academic freedom "infringed upon by instructors who persistently introduce controversial matter into the classroom that has no relation to the subject of study and serves no legitimate pedagogical purpose."
Baxley said that simply means a science professor should stick to that topic and not let any digressions into other matters affect the class.
"I don't think it's the fact that (class discussion) is controversial that's the problem. The problem is inappropriate forums," Baxley said. "If the course is labeled as a political discourse on the evils of capitalism you expect that."
But the bill worries academics who fear its true intent is to hinder any discourse out of the mainstream.
Pierre Ramond, chairman of the University of Florida faculty senate and a member of the UF board of trustees, said the bill is "dangerous."
"I think this is kind of an attempt to legislate what professors can and cannot say," said Ramond, a physics professor and director of the Institute for Fundamental Theory. Ramond said the fuzzy definition of "controversial" is the bill's largest problem.
"What's controversial? Who says it has no relationship to the subject of study? Who will tell if something has no legitimate pedagogical purpose? There are too many things the bill wants to define," Ramond said.
He added that stoking passions with what may be perceived as extreme views is a necessary teaching tool.
"You do not educate people with the dogma of the day," Ramond said. "You want to produce critical thinking. Shocking people with thoughts that appear to be out of left field might not be bad."
And Ramond said any stifling of discourse could hinder society's evolution.
"It wasn't too long ago that people thought other people of different races were not human and if you'd tried to teach against that, you probably would have been in trouble with this bill," Ramond said.
Baxley said he has no specific examples of problems in Florida beyond anecdotes. But he sees a trend of liberal proselytizing on campuses.
"What used to be an image in our universities as a place of open dialogue has moved to where we have a niche of totalitarianism almost where if you don't give the right answer (to meet the professor's political bent), you're out of the class or you get your grade knocked down," he said.
The bill would also make it students' rights to have their fees used on a "viewpoint-neutral basis with respect to substantive political and religious disagreements, differences and opinions."
"There is this kind of quiet prejudice that the leftist person or guest on campus gets the major auditorium and all the questions are screened and the conservative guest gets the little corner of the Fine Arts room and gets the open mike so everyone can let go on him," Baxley said.
The liberal People For The American Way has put Students for Academic Freedom on its "Right Wing Watch," saying Horowitz has called universities "indoctrination centers for the political left."
Students for Academic Freedom's Web site counters with accusations of universities blacklisting conservatives from teaching positions.
The bill's odds of success are unknown, but they're aided by Baxley's sponsorship. He is the chair of House's Education Council. And earlier this week, Gov. Jeb Bush said Baxley was one of his closest allies in the Legislature.
Baxley said the bill was prescient given the recent uproar about University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill's statements in a book that complimented the terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center.
"He's certainly an example of the discourse (at universities). I'm not a person that wants him fired. I want him accountable. I don't want him giving someone an 'F' because the won't say the president should be tried for war crimes," Baxley said.
*** Jenny Brown