John K. Wilson, author of The Myth of Political Correctness: The Conservative Attack on Higher Education, has been defending the AAUP’s report, Freedom in the Classroom, and attacking the critics of the report, including me, and now Erin O’Connor, whose important essay, Professors: ‘What, Us Biased?’ is posted today on Minding the Campus.
In his blog, College Freedom, Wilson seems to climb down a bit. The AAUP would have no problem if the critics of professors bringing their politics to the classroom were concerned, in O’Connor’s words, with faculty members who compel students “to adopt certain viewpoints in order to complete assignments.” Writes Wilson:
If this were the main issue, the AAUP would have no argument with it. O’Connor and others who accuse the AAUP of creating ‘straw men’ need to read carefully the views of Horowitz, the leader of their movement and the man they refuse to criticize.
Wilson has more in the vein, about “policing professors for the content of their views expressed in the classroom” and referring to “the right -wing movement of Horowitz and ACTA, and O’Connor [which] seems to embrace this effort to ban criticism of the government from the classroom.”
Wilson seems to offers us a way out: if only we would criticize Horowitz! Then AAUP would presumably set some reasonable restrictions against political indoctrination on campus, imbalance in classroom presentation of controversial issues, and interjection into class of irrelevant political views. It is a tempting offer. All I have to do is criticize David Horowitz? Mr. Wilson, what guarantee do I have that the AAUP will follow through with its side of the deal: we give you Horowitz, you give us academic freedom?
I’m up for this. David Horowitz is a highly visible activist, but it never occurred to me that he spoke for the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, the National Association of Scholars, or conservative academics in general. I say we truss him up and hand him over—provided, of course, that Mr. Wilson shows that he can deliver the goods.
And Mr. Wilson, now that we are friends, I’ll send you a signed copy of A Bee in the Mouth: Anger in America Now, in exchange for a signed copy of Barack Obama: This Improbable Quest.