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For Immediate Release

July 20, 2006
Contact: Elizabeth Ruiz
800-752-6562
[email protected]

Temple University Trustees Adopt Policy on Students’ Academic Rights

Yesterday (July 19), Temple University in Philadelphia became the first university to adopt an academic freedom policy which specifically addresses student rights and not just faculty privileges; protects students from ideological abuses in the classroom; and provides a grievance machinery to handle violations of students’ academic freedom.

Titled “Student and Faculty Academic Rights and Responsibilities,” the new policy which will take effect on August 1 of this year reflects the concerns and recommendations of Students for Academic Freedom, which has promoted David Horowitz’s proposal for an Academic Bill of Rights, and which played an important role in the academic freedom hearings of the Pennsylvania House, which were held at Temple on January 9 and 10 of this year.

The policy emphasizes that students as well as professors are entitled to academic freedom: “Freedom to teach and freedom to learn are inseparable facets of academic freedom. The freedom to learn depends upon appropriate opportunities and conditions in the classroom, on the campus, and in the larger community. The University and the faculty have a responsibility to provide students with opportunities and protections that promote the learning process in all its aspects. Students similarly should exercise their freedom with responsibility.”

Equally important is a provision creating grievance machinery for students whose rights have been infringed. The policy specifies that this new grievance procedure is distinct from existing policies for handling grading disputes, and specifically addresses the student’s right to learn, free from political harassment and indoctrination. It outlines a procedure whereby a student can take a series of informal and then formal steps to challenge violations of academic freedom within the administration hierarchy.

In a passage largely based on the American Association of University Professors’ 1940 “Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Academic Tenure” and the current Temple academic freedom policy outlines both the privileges and obligations that academic freedom demands of faculty in the classroom:

“Faculty are entitled to freedom in the classroom in discussing their subjects, but they should be careful not to introduce into their teaching controversial (or other) matter which has no relation to their subject. The faculty member is responsible, however, for maintaining academic standards in the presentation of course materials.”

The policy further provides for a reporting system that includes the Academic Affairs Committee of the Board of Trustees.

Unlike the existing academic freedom policies at Temple, the new policy will be included in the university catalogue that is distributed to all students. It has already been posted in the Policies and Procedures section of the university website so that all students will be made aware of their rights. This has been a prominent demand of the academic freedom campaign.

The policy can be found here: http://policies.temple.edu/getdoc.asp?policy_no=03.70.02

The background to the development of Temple’s new academic freedom policy is the academic freedom hearings which were held by a select committee of the Pennsylvania House at Temple this past January. These hearing were authorized by House legislation HR 177 sponsored by Representative Gibson Armstrong.

Speaking for the academic freedom campaign which had pressed for the House hearings, David Horowitz testified that Temple was in need of a grievance procedure that specifically addressing academic freedom violations: “Temple University has an Academic Freedom Policy,” he told the legislators. “It is regularly disregarded. There are no readily available or effective means for members of the Temple community to address the violations of academic freedom that occur regularly in Temple classrooms and are integral to [many] Temple courses.”

Commenting on the newly adopted policy, Horowitz said: “This policy change is an important victory for Temple students and for the University as a whole. The new policy should serve as a model to academic institutions nationwide. By establishing this policy Temple has effectively shifted institutional power in the university, bringing students into the equation for the first time.”

Students for Academic Freedom is a national movement to promote intellectual diversity and to restore educational values to America’s institutions of higher learning. The organization recommends that colleges and universities adopt an Academic Bill of Rights to ensure that these principles are respected. The Academic Bill of Rights is available on the organization’s website at www.studentsforacademicfreedom.org.

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Historic Victory at Princeton

As the academic year winds to a close, we have exciting news to report from Princeton University where the entire student body voted on April 27 to pass a version of the Student Bill of Rights-the first time the Bill has faced a campus-wide referendum.

Although the vote was close (with 51.8% of students voting for the measure) the result showed that even many students not affiliated with the College Republicans voted in favor of academic freedom, proving the Bill’s ability to inspire bi-partisan support.

The success of the Student Bill of Rights can be attributed to the vigilant efforts of the Princeton College Republicans and their president, Alexander Maugeri and treasurer, Wyatt Yankus. The College Republicans papered the campus with fliers in support of the Student Bill of Rights and collected signatures to get the measure on the ballot in the campus center and dining halls.

The campaign waged by the Princeton College Republicans in support of the bill was explicitly non-partisan. Despite their best efforts to keep partisan politics on the sidelines, the College Democrats and others on campus waged a somewhat hysterical campaign to prevent the Bill’s passage.

The president of the College Democrats sent an email to her approximately 1000 members stating that “the College Democrats do not support the College Republicans’ ‘Student Bill of Rights’ and we are urging our membership to vote ‘no.'” Members of a group called “Free Exchange at Princeton”-affiliated with the national coalition Free Exchange on Campus which was designed explicitly to hinder the academic freedom movement and has repeatedly spread false accusations about our efforts-also launched an opposition campaign to defeat the Bill.

The Princeton campus newspaper, the Daily Princetonian, reported on the College Republicans’ efforts to counter these partisan attacks:

Set back by accusations of partisanship, officers implored students to read the text of the bill, which makes no specific reference to a particular political ideology. “The challenge we posed was, ‘Can you find anything in this document to which you disagree?’ ” College Republican membership chair Nicholas Cox ’08 said. “A lot of the arguments came down to the fact that [the referendum was from] the College Republicans.”

“We succeeded because by distributing copies of the Bill of Rights to every dorm room on campus, we were able to bypass all of the misinformation and slander, allowing students to see the bill for what it truly is,” Princeton College Republicans Treasurer Wyatt Yankus explained. “I take pride in the fact that the Princeton student body took a stand in defense of academic freedom and intellectual diversity.”

In a post on his personal blog, Students for Academic Freedom Chairman David Horowitz called the Princeton vote “a historic victory for academic freedom” and noted that it “a student bill of rights on academic freedom is an idea whose time has come.”

Alex Lenahan, President of the Undergraduate Student Government at Princeton, has said that he will sign the Student Bill of Rights, at which point it will be recognized as the official statement of the student body at Princeton.

The entire text of the Princeton legislation may be read here and we encourage our chapters on other campuses to adopt this resolution and introduce it or other versions of the Student Bill of Rights on their own campuses.

Passing the Torch

As the end of the school year approaches, it is crucial for those SAF leaders who are graduating this spring to name their replacements for the upcoming school year. Please send me an email at [email protected] or give me a call at our new toll-free number, 888-527-3321, to let me know who the new SAF president or contact person on your campus will be next semester. If you are planning to start an SAF chapter next fall, now is the perfect time to gather the information and materials you will need to hit the ground running next September. Just get in touch with me and I will gladly get you everything you need to get started.

Yours in Freedom,

Sara Dogan
National Campus Director
Students for Academic Freedom

The debate will be held Thursday evening on the campus of George Washington University in Washington, DC. Young America’s Foundation and the Center for the Study of Popular Culture are the co-hosts of the debate. Seating for the debate is limited and will be determined by George Washington University. Conference registration does not guarantee admission to the debate.

The conference will also feature U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander, House Leader Jack Kingston, and Colorado high school student Sean Allen whose recording of an anti-American rant by his geography teacher, Jay Bennish, created a national furor over classroom indoctrination. The conference (apart from the debate) will take place at the Washington Court Hotel in Washington, DC.

The conference is free for students, non-profit employees, legislative staffers, and the media and is only $75 for the general public. Some dormitory housing is available free-of-charge for college students traveling to the conference from outside of the DC area. A preliminary schedule for the conference may be found here. For more information or to register for the conference, please contact Elizabeth Ruiz at 800-752-6562, ext. 202 or at [email protected].

High School Indoctrination

Several horrific cases of classroom indoctrination in high schools have made national headlines during the past few weeks. A geography teacher in a Colorado high school delivered a 20 minute communist rant and compared President Bush to Adolf Hitler; a New Jersey teacher put President Bush on trial for war crimes in his classroom, and students at a public high school in Maryland launched a campaign to reform the peace studies class at their school which was taught with an extreme anti-war and anti-conservative bias.

The educational establishment would like you to believe that these instances are a rarity, but sadly we know better. The only thing that is rare in these instances is that thanks to the courageous action of the teenage victims of these so-called educators, these indoctrinators were exposed to public scrutiny. Students for Academic Freedom has defended these students in press releases and on national media shows. Read on for the latest details.

Child Abuse in Colorado

At Overland High School in Colorado, tenth grade geography teacher Jay Bennish was suspended from his teaching duties after an audio tape made by a 16-year-old student revealed Bennish using class time to rant against America, the Bush administration and capitalism.

The tape, made by student Sean Allen, documents a tirade Bennish delivered on February 1^st about President Bush’s State of the Union address. After recounting some of Bush’s comments during the speech, Bennish declared “Sounds a lot like the things Adolf Hitler used to say.” He also questioned his class, “Who is the probably the single most violent nation on planet Earth?!” and answered himself, “The United States of America!” Bennish declared capitalism to be against humanity and said the victims of 9;/11 were justified targets because they included FBI men and businessmen.

Students for Academic Freedom put out a press release calling for the school to take immediate action against the teacher and to send the message that such classroom indoctrination is child abuse. “This outrageous violation of students’ academic freedom points the need for immediate adoption of the K-12 Academic Bill of Rights nationwide,” said David Horowitz, the chairman of Students for Academic Freedom. “The fact that Bennish’s outrage took the form of a Communist political rant on the evils of America, capitalism, and George Bush in that order is immaterial. Any political rant in a classroom (high school or otherwise) is an unprofessional abuse of students and deserves the sternest punishment. It’s time to take politics out of the classroom and put education back in.”

Bush on Trial in New Jersey Classroom

At Parsippany High School in New Jersey, teacher Joseph Kyle has assigned students in his advanced placement government class to put President Bush on trial for “crimes against civilian populations” and “inhumane treatment of prisoners.” Students are assigned to either the prosecution or the defense and the case will be judged by a panel of five teachers dubbed the “international court of justice.”

In an appearance on MSNBC, David Horowitz condemned Kyle for intruding his partisan politics into the classroom and taking advantage of his position as an educator.

Reforming Peace Studies in Maryland

Students at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in Maryland launched a campaign to reform the teaching of peace studies at their school after discovering that the course is regularly used to indoctrinate students in antiwar ideology and to disparage conservative views.

Andrew Saraf and Avishek Panth, both 17-year-old seniors at the school, became concerned after their classmates approached them with tales of their experiences in Colman McCarthy’s Peace Studies course, an elective class for seniors. Though not a student in the course himself, Saraf was incensed by his classmates’ descriptions of McCarthy’s class, where the textbook is a collection of essays on peace edited by McCarthy himself and where students are regularly subjected to one-sided guest lecturers and diatribes. Saraf sent an e-mail questioning McCarthy’s use of the class to promote his political agendas to the school e-mail list, sparking a fiery debate leading to press coverage in the Washington Post.

Saraf contacted Students for Academic Freedom for advice on how to challenge the course’s exclusionary political content. Sara Dogan, the national campus director for Students for Academic Freedom, urged him to carefully document student complaints about the course and suggested that he meet with the school’s top administrators to recommend that they adopt the Academic Bill of Rights. She also suggested that he put out a press release and seek media attention to spur administrative action to address the course’s one-sided content. Students at B-CC are also considering organizing a chapter of Students for Academic Freedom.

Colman McCarthy, the teacher of the course, has defended his teaching style, saying, “Unless we teach them peace, someone else will teach them violence,” although he claims to welcome conservative dissenters in his class.Students for Academic Freedom put out a press release defending Saraf and his campaign to remove the partisan content from the school’s peace studies program, noting that “Andrew Saraf and his classmates have set a courageous example of how students who refuse to accept classroom indoctrination can make a true difference in their schools.”

Yours in Freedom,

Sara Dogan
National Campus Director
Students for Academic Freedom