Professors frown on state bill

Although intellectual diversity in class sounds like a good thing and an idea a university would value, the Academic Bill of Rights is not widely accepted by IU professors.\nThe bill, which was introduced Jan. 18 in the Indiana Statehouse by Rep. Luke Messer (R-Shelbyville), would require professors to address multiple perspectives on issues in their curricula and their reading lists. It also would prohibit professors from indoctrinating students and grading them based on their political or religious persuasions.\nIU Assistant Professor James Grehan said it is important to present multiple viewpoints in his history classes so students can understand history from the perspective of non-American regions and cultures.\n"If students are confronted by ideas that are upsetting, it's not because of indoctrination," said Grehan, who specializes in Middle Eastern history, a discipline that sometimes receives criticism for its supposed anti-American sentiment. "They need to realize that seen from the viewpoint of the Middle East, American engagement (in the region) looks very different."\nHe said students can think what they want about the Middle East, and he doesn't ask them to believe anything; he just wants them to see events from the perspectives of all parties involved in any conflict.\nAlthough Grehan said diverse perspectives are important, he opposes the bill because he said ideas are not all equal. He said it is also important to know there is "potentially false logic in requiring diversity of views," and historians "should assure each view is valid and supported by history."\n"Historians are constantly addressing these issues and looking for new evidence," he said. "I'm going to lay the stress on those views that carry the most evidence."\nAs an example, Grehan said a generation of Israeli scholars recently has challenged the theory of the 1948 Palestinian flight from Israel. An older theory, he said, claimed Palestinians left on their own free will. New evidence from the Israeli archives shows the Palestinians left because they were intimidated to leave. \n"I would feel awkward to walk into a classroom and drudge up older theories because in light of new evidence, these older theories don't carry much weight," he said. \nAlong with requiring diversity of perspectives in class, the bill also requires universities to hire, fire, promote and tenure professors without regard to their politics or religion. Many professors said this provision is actually a violation of the principle of academic freedom.\nRobert Ivie, IU professor of communication and culture, said academic freedom is really about protecting professors from charges of political or religious heresy. He said the bill's writer, David Horowitz, of conservative student group Students for Academic Freedom, said he wants the government to force universities to hire a diverse collection of professors, but actually Horowitz wants the government to force universities to hire ultraconservative professors. \n"We don't hire people because of their close-minded, far-left ideologies," he said. "We hire scholars who are thoughtful and innovative and tenure them because they're successful in scholarship."\nJeff Isaac, IU political science department chair and professor, also said the bill violates academic freedom.\n"(The bill) is premised upon false claims and seeks to mobilize state legislature and the board of trustees to regulate what scholars and teachers do in ways that ironically endanger academic freedom."\nBoth Ivie and Isaac agreed with Grehan that professors should cover diverse perspectives but should have discretion over their curricula.\n"To say anyone in academia is left wing is to erase the complexity of things that scholars spend time studying," Ivie said. "Professors are thoughtful, reflective people. It is their business to come to thoughtful conclusions, not to regurgitate (what's been told to them). They're supposed to make judgments."\nIsaac said he doesn't think scholarly values involve partisan politics or conscious political agendas.\n"I think there is great diversity of opinion across the University," Isaac said, "and I think there's no evidence that, in any systematic sense, faculty have any problem teaching in ways that are intellectually fair."\n-- Contact Staff Writer Stephanie Susman at ssusman@indiana.edu.