ACADEMIC FREEDOM: NOT A COVER FOR BAD TEACHING

Much misunderstood, often misused, academic freedom like freedom of speech is not absolute

Academic Freedom is a principle accepted by most colleges and universities. It maintains that professors should be free to teach controversial subject matter without fear of losing their teaching positions. Unlike freedom of speech, academic freedom is not a Constitutional right. It is up to each individual educational institution to either accept or reject The Principles of Academic Freedom.

The Principles of Academic Freedom were set forth by the American Association of University Professors many years ago. And since then, whenever a college teacher is criticized for what he may have said in the classroom, he is quick to take cover behind the clarion call of Academic Freedom. However, Academic Freedom, like Freedom of Speech, is not absolute.

The American Association of University Professors noted this about its 1915 Declaration of Principles on Academic Freedom: "If this profession should prove itself unwilling to purge its ranks of the incompetent and unworthy, or to prevent the freedom which it claims . . . from being used as a shelter for inefficiency, for superficiality, or for uncritical and intemperate partisanship, it is certain that the task will be performed by others."

The Principles of Academic Freedom require that teachers “should at all times be accurate” and “should exercise appropriate restraint.” Academic Freedom was designed to allow for a “free search for the truth,” but “not to further the interest of the individual teacher.”

A case in point is David Michael Smith, a political science professor at College of the Mainland in Texas City, Texas. Smith is an avowed Marxist who has been teaching at COM for 15 years and is referred to as ‘Red David’ by many of his colleagues.

Eleven years ago, Galveston County Judge Roy Holbrook (the county’s highest ranking official), several other civic leaders and I fought unsuccessfully to keep the COM trustees from granting Red David tenure. Judge Holbrook and the others really preferred to have Smith fired because he was a Marxist and they believed correctly that he was indoctrinating his students with anti-Americanism.

I did not oppose granting Red David tenure because he was a Marxist, but because of the lies and half-truths he was teaching his students as exemplified by a letter to the Texas City Sun that 14 of his students signed, saying they were “sickened” by our “imperialistic military” for:

__The bombing of innocent civilians;

__The cluster bombs that are dismembering children;

__For murdering hundreds of thousands of civilians every single year.

The question is, where did those students pick up that garbage? Texas City is a union town and many families there would agree with Red David’s classroom rants (as reported by many students) about how Capitalism oppresses the masses and exploits the workers. However, most of those union workers are loyal and patriotic Americans who, during family discussions, would never disseminate a load of crap like that spelled out in the letter from Smith's students. Those 14 students sure as hell did not pick up what ‘sickened’ them at the family dinner table – they had to be sickened in Red David’s classroom.

To make matters worse, Smith and his wife Rona (also an avowed Marxist) are the founders of the Progressive Workers Organizing Committee. Its manifesto contains paragraph after paragraph spelling out the evils of capitalism and America’s government policies. One line from that manifesto makes Red David a dangerous teacher:

__“As the nucleus of a pre-party formation, we know that the first step in recruiting and retaining new members must be radical political education.”

According to what his students wrote eleven years ago, Red David’s teachings violated the Principles of Academic Freedom because they were not accurate and he certainly did not exercise appropriate restraint. He was, instead, furthering his own interests as an avowed Marxist and probably encouraging students to join his PROGRESSIVE WORKERS ORGANIZING COMMITTEE.

Red David was granted tenure. That was eleven years ago and this is now. Just by chance, Lauren Davis, a former COM student happened to comment Thursday about Smith on one of my previous blogs. Here is what Davis wrote:

__”I had him as a teacher in the summer of '09. His only goal is to brainwash the young, ignorant minds of those who are fresh out of high school. I am an opinionated 23 year old girl and proud to be conservative so I did not hold back my thoughts in his class. We butted heads every single morning. I couldn't believe that I was paying to sit in there and listen to his load of bull shit. He is the type of professor that needs to be flushed out of academia in America.”

Well Lauren, Red David has just been flushed out of College of the Mainland. This week, by a vote of 6-0 with one abstention, the college’s Board of Trustees voted to fire him. But they did not fire him for violating the Principles of Academic Freedom or for indoctrinating his students with the bullshit you wrote about.

Smith was fired for insubordination and for violating the campus code of ethics (whatever that is), not for what he should have been fired long ago. I suspect his termination has more to do with the fact he previously filed two lawsuits against COM than for being insubordinate. His case is far from over because he is sure to file a lawsuit over his firing. And it probably won’t cost him anything because his legal fees will be covered by the ACLU or some academic association(s).

Our colleges and universities are full of Marxist and other far-left professors who quickly take cover behind Academic Freedom whenever they are criticized for their teachings. You can bet that eleven years ago, none of the trustees who voted unanimously to grant David Michael Smith tenure, had ever read the Principles of Academic Freedom. For that matter, I suspect that most college professors, and even some administrators, have not read the principles either.

Academic Freedom is much misunderstood and often misused. The Principles of Academic Freedom contain specific limitations that are violated all the time. Professors, like Red David, get away with violating those principles because other faculty members will always come to their defense, screaming bloody murder about infringements on academic freedom and freedom of speech. And that gets the attention of college administrators because they fear having a faculty revolt on their hands.