Pod professors

Fellow college students! There is a growing threat toward our very way of life. As we speak, sinister alien invaders are sneaking into our classrooms and research facilities! There, this menace hypnotizes children into hating America! No man can survive its evil gaze without losing their moral standards! Watch out, little Johnny and Susie! You could be next!\nThink this couldn't happen in your town? According to Students for Academic Freedom, those sinister life forms known as "liberal professors" are brainwashing students into radical anti-Americanism! Those few fortunate souls who survived the horrible indoctrination must hide in caves, fearful that their conservative viewpoints will make them targets for destruction, mutilation or even the docking of their grades! Even now, they are coming for you! Run! Run, damn you, run! Before it's too late!\nIs "liberal professor indoctrination" really anything more than science fiction? Not really. But if some legislators and conservatives have their way, the freedom for some professors to teach without restriction will go up in a cloud of smoke.\nThe national organization Students for Academic Freedom, headed by ultra-conservative author David Horowitz, may soon strangle academic freedom if House Bill 1531 passes. The bill, introduced into the Indiana Senate last month, would develop guidelines for grading and teaching to prevent discrimination against certain students. However, "certain students" means "conservative students," and "guidelines" means "nonconservative viewpoints." The complaint is that the majority of university professors are radically leftist and indoctrinate, or brainwash, poor, unsuspecting students into Marxist ideology. \nThere's something incredibly ironic when someone uses the word "freedom" when they're trying to limit what professors can teach.\nAre professors more liberal than the general populace? Probably. But that's not the point here. Instead of allowing professors to have opposing viewpoints, the SAF wants to impose more conservative faculty and harsher punishments for those faculty members who have an outward liberal bias.\nIn my four years of being at IU, I have identified only two professors' political stances. One, a sociology professor, made a little joke about being "in mourning" the Wednesday after Election Day. The other, a journalism professor, often used pro-Green Party, pro-environment articles he wrote for an outside publication as in-class examples. Both will remain anonymous for their own safety. Neither time did I feel indoctrinated or belittled by disagreeing with their positions.\nThere are plenty of University by-laws that deal with competency issues. If a professor deducts points based upon a student's political beliefs, then there are rules to deal with that professor. If a professor repeatedly or maliciously harasses a student based upon beliefs, then that is a legitimate complaint and should be taken care of through the appropriate channels.\nThe idea of unwilling "indoctrination" is silly. If a student's intellectual strength is not strong enough to withstand a few hours a week of liberal professorship, then perhaps they should rethink their values. There is nothing wrong with having a class taught by a professor who has an opinion different than your own. Dealing with an opposing viewpoint allows a student to defend his or her beliefs. College is about the free exchange of ideas, and some people's ideas might not be your own. In college, we finalize our worldview. We need varying viewpoints to determine where we stand on the issues.\nOn SAF's Web site, its official Mission and Strategy states: "Universities are institutions of learning (and) not platforms for political parties or intellectual sects." If House Bill No. 1531 passes, the SAF will break its own code. Instead of being for academic freedom for all, the SAF will use universities as platforms for their intellectual sect.\nBut for those fearing indoctrination, keep watching the skies.