The Culture Wars Come to Campus--Again.

As primary contributors to the marketplace of ideas, colleges and universities have historically been the locus of contention for the worldviews of the left and right. Debate has become more heated in recent years, fueled by the war in Iraq and the renewed prominence of moral issues such as reproductive rights and same-sex marriage. In this environment, some conservative groups are crying foul on the nation's campuses, charging that pervasive liberalism in academe creates a hostile environment for free and fair exchange, particularly for right-leaning students. These interests have focused their attention and efforts on three primary fronts: Academic Bill of Rights This measure, promoted by activist David Horowitz through the Center for the Study of Popular Culture and Students for Academic Freedom, contains a handful of mandates. These include: non-discrimination with respect to viewpoint in the hiring, advancement, and dismissal of faculty; non-discrimination with respect to viewpoint against students in the assessment of their academic work; and acknowledgement of accepted and dissenting theories in the humanities and social sciences. The measure made its legislative debut in a few states in 2004, with limited success (a resolution in the Georgia Senate). In 2005, however, it appeared in more legislatures (thirteen) [see Figure 1], as well as in the U.S. version of the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (though modified to sense of the House language). The prospects for the Academic Bill of Rights becoming law remain relatively modest, in part because evidence of viewpoint bias offered by interest groups often does not stand up to closer scrutiny. A key case in point arises from the University of Northern Colorado, where a student alleged that she failed an essay exam because she refused to write an essay on why George Bush is a war criminal. Upon investigation, it was discovered that: a) the question did not directly state or imply that the president is a war criminal; b) the student was not required to answer the question in dispute; and c) the student failed the examination because she did not provide sufficient responses to the questions answered (i.e., one page responses, where two page responses were requested). Tenure and Faculty Free Speech Rights Two prominent and contentious cases have pushed this issue to the forefront. The most recognizable is that of Ward Churchill, the University of Colorado professor who penned an article comparing September nth victims to little Eichmanns (a reference to their implicit support of a corrupt system that gives rise to terrorism). The second comes from Columbia University, where professors in Middle Eastern Studies were accused of intimidating students with pro-Israel viewpoints. Reaction to both was immediate and severe. In Colorado, the state's political leaders, including the governor, called for Churchill's ousting and threatened to reduce university funding in the amount of the professor's salary if he was not dismissed. …