Where There Is Fire There Is A Torch

I would be quite remiss if I didn't mention the good work being done by the folks at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (or F.I.R.E.). They have recently started their own blog, The Torch. I'm sure I'll be using them quite a bit in the future.

Here is a good starter post to check out: The AAUP's Ringing Defense of Diversity

In response to this startling evidence of political and intellectual uniformity on our nation's campuses, the American Association of University Professors issued a strong call for a renewed emphasis on diversity and an end to viewpoint discrimination:

A diverse educational environment challenges [students] to explore ideas and arguments at a deeper level, to see issues from various sides, to rethink their own premises.

We learn when shaken by new facts, beliefs, experiences, and viewpoints. The student assimilates the new data so that they fit the existing conception, or revises the conception to accommodate the new data. [Emphasis added.]

My mistake. Those comments were not from the AAUP's response to the ideological uniformity on campus. The comments instead come from the AAUP's amicus brief in the case of Gratz v. Bollinger and relate to racial diversity, not intellectual diversity. When it comes to intellectual diversity, the AAUP's response is a bit different:

When asked about the findings, Jonathan Knight, director of academic freedom and tenure for the American Association of University Professors, said, "The question is how this translates into what happens within the academic community on such issues as curriculum, admission of students, evaluation of students, evaluation of faculty for salary and promotion." Knight said he isn't aware of "any good evidence" that personal views are having an impact on campus policies.

"It's hard to see that these liberal views cut very deeply into the education of students. In fact, a number of studies show the core values that students bring into the university are not very much altered by being in college."

No evidence that personal views are having an impact on campus policies? Has Knight read a modern speech code lately?

There is plenty more of this over at The Torch.