So-called Academic Bill of Rights legislation that’s being considered in several states would stifle debate and silence controversial views on college campuses, according to Kathy Sproles, president of NEA’s National Council for Higher Education.
The legislation, which has been introduced twice in California, was developed by conservative activist David Horowitz, who claims to be protecting students whose political views differ from those of their professors.
“Students from all over the world attend colleges and universities in the U.S. to attain a quality education that comes from the free exchange of ideas,” says Sproles, the former president of the Community College Association, an affiliate of CTA. “Horowitz and his supporters, it seems, are afraid of that free exchange, and want the government to step in and control the flow of information, discussion and debate.”
One group aligned with Horowitz’s “student academic freedom movement” has targeted 30 faculty members at UCLA, and is recruiting student vigilantes to spy on them. Its website accuses the faculty members of conspiring with “radical Muslim students and a pliant administration” to turn UCLA into “a major organizing center for opposition to the War on Terror.”
The NEA Higher Education Program and the NEA Student Program are founding members of the Free Exchange on Campus Coalition [http://www.freeexchangeoncampus.org], which is committed to advocating for the rights of students and faculty to hear and express a full range of ideas unencumbered by political or ideological interference. The coalition believes that the free exchange of ideas is being threatened by ideological agendas and McCarthyite tactics.
Other members of the coalition include the American Federation of Teachers, People for the American Way Foundation/ Young People For, the National Association of State PIRGs, the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Association of University Professors, and the Center for Campus Free Speech.