A Matter of Opinion

Political Biases in the Classroom

By Kendra Hoerst
Staff Writer

Should professors express controversial opinions in the classroom? Where does the line between indoctrination and education lie?

Nationwide, debate surrounds this issue. Conservative groups, such as republican and libertarian groups, protest what they see as a liberal coup of the classroom. They claim that liberal professors and students dominate the university environment. According to a USA Today article, they have proposed an “Academic Bill of Rights,” which would attempt to encourage diversity among professors and protect students when they disagree with their professor’s political leanings. They want immunity in the classroom: protection from what they see as a skewed point of view and the chance to keep their own opinions intact. At UCLA, alumni Andrew Jones has offered to pay students $100 dollars for reporting professors whom students see as “abusive, one-sided, or off-topic,” says CNSNews.com.

On the surface, this issue doesn’t appear to affect the Claremont Colleges much. After all, we are a soundly liberal community, with, like most other liberal arts colleges around the country, predominately sympathetic professors. And even when there’s a disagreement, every student I’ve asked about this issue has said they have typically found professors fair here. As Chip Dickerson, a CMC senior says, in his “experience professors have been open to opposing viewpoints, both in class discussions and in assignments, and will often reward people who make a good effort to argue against the position that the professor believes, as long as they do so honestly and with a degree of intellectual rigor.”

But is this ever an issue at the 5Cs? And, if it is, what should we do?

One senior, who asked not to be identified, said that she felt intimated in one of her politics classes which involved watching the presidential debates of 2004. She considers herself “moderate politically,” and didn’t feel comfortable expressing her point of view. She says that everyone, including the professor, “was so busy making fun of Bush that you couldn’t even hear what he was saying.” Although episodes like this are not representative of the Claremont experience, they still happen. So what should our reaction be? Should we respond like the rest of the nation, or is there a better way?

Sadly, this is a loaded debate with no firm answers. Each class may have to be evaluated individually, according to content and purpose. Still, there have to be some guidelines.

One such guideline, which, in the words of Professor David Menefee-Libey (PO), has been “paraphrased in the bylaws of every reputable college and university in the US,” is the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure. According to the statement, “Teachers are entitled to freedom in the classroom in discussing their subject, but they should be careful not to introduce into their teaching controversial matter which has no relation to their subject.” That principle is echoed by professor Andrew Busch (CMC), who says, “the expression of personal views should be limited to the subject at hand.” Menefee-Libey also advocates this type of academic freedom. “I should be able to do my work in the best way I know how, to develop curricula as best I can, to teach as best I can, without fear that someone will seek to harm me or silence me because they don’t like my politics or my race or my religion or my whatever.”

At the same time, other professors feel that they should be more careful. Professor Kerry Odell (SC) says that we need to realize that “there is a power differentiation. Faculty has to be aware that their opinions might be perceived as fact.” She tries not to express her “political opinions in the classroom.” She also feels that there “is a distinction between academic freedom between colleagues and faculty-student interaction.” Still, she says that “this does not mean that faculty cannot express controversial opinions as long as they are labeled as such.” While Claremont faculty needs liberty to research and explore any topic of their choosing, the classroom is a different setting.

To complicate matters even further, controversy may be essential to a healthy classroom. Odell argues that “it would be a shame if controversial opinions didn’t have a place in the classroom.” CMC’s professor Gary Kates says that professors should openly express controversial opinions when they “further student learning.” Odell concludes that this is the benefit to colleges. “Part of the ivory tower is that it allows people to wrestle with issues without putting lives or grades at stake.”