A reminder for college-bound conservatives

To those who are attending college this fall for the first time, or will be returning: not all universities are conservative-friendly. Bart Adams files this timely roundup of anti-conservative incidents at colleges across the country in recent years:

Ò€’ At California Polytechnic State University, student Steven Hinkle tried to post a flier in a public area of the campus Multicultural Center. The flier advertised a speech by a black conservative who authored a book titled “It’s OK to Leave the Plantation” who argues that African-Americans are too dependent on government programs. A number of students who informally gathered in the center tried to prevent him from putting it up, and threatened to call the campus police when Mr. Hinkle offered to discuss the issue. After he departed, the students called the police and filed a complaint against him. The Cal Poly Judicial Office took up the case and found Mr. Hinkle guilty of “disrupting a campus event” and he was required to write letters of apology to the students he offended.

Ò€’ Students at Southern Methodist University, UC-Irvine, and the University of Washington held “affirmative action bake sales” to protest the categorization of applicants based on skin color. All three bake sales were shut down by the schools’ administrations. The reason given for one closure was that the event endangered public safety because a few unruly students tore down the signs and threatened the students holding the sale. Rather than arrest or detain the violent offenders, the campus police simply shut down the event.

Ò€’ At Whittier College in California, a group of student journalists put together a conservative newspaper called the Liberty Bell. After printing the second issue, they were told that they were forbidden to distribute it on campus without receiving permission from the school’s publications board. Ò€¦ Yet none of the other four publications on campus have been asked to submit to evaluation by this board.

Ò€’ Students at Citrus College, a public college in California, were given an extra-credit assignment by Professor Rosalyn Kahn as part of a required speech class in which they were ordered to write letters to President Bush protesting the war in Iraq. Those who wrote letters praising the Iraq campaign or who refused to actually mail their letters to the president’s office were refused credit for the assignment.

Ò€’ A criminology class at a Colorado university was told to write an essay on why President Bush was a war criminal. When a student instead wrote why Saddam Hussein was the war criminal, she was given a failing grade.

Read it all, and remember: these speech thugs may think they can intimidate you into keeping quiet, but you do have options should an incident occur. From Students For Academic Freedom’s mission and strategy page:

9. Note and object to events that abuse the academic nature of the university. These include one-sided faculty political teach-ins, one-sided faculty conferences and one-sided faculty lecture series that are inappropriately partisan events in an academic setting. Make a list of these events and demand reforms from the appropriate university authorities to ensure representation of diverse viewpoints.

10. Note and object to one-sided reading lists, one-sided speakers programs, and lops-sided funding of student organizations.

11. Note and object to the absence of diversity among faculty in a particular department, in class curricula, and in classes offered. (See Section V, item 1 below)

12. Report these abuses in your college paper, on your college Internet forums, to local media and to www.studentsforacademicfreedom.org. Take the list of these abuses to parents and alumni and solicit funds to advertise your case and alert the campus community to the situation.

13. If possible, create a newsletter or produce a pamphlet that documents the abuses.

14. Go to the President of the University (always go to the highest level possible) with a list of documented abuses. Demand a redress of grievances, including an apology from the offending authority and the promulgation of a policy to correct the abuse. Demand that the university administration adopt “The Academic Bill of Rights” as an official university code.

15. If the University is unwilling to take corrective measures, notify the press, the public, alumni and other Students for Academic Freedom clubs through www.studentsforacademicfreedom.org.

16. If your academic institution is private, locate the chairman of the trustees’ “Development Committee” which raises funds for the university, and appeal for help. If it is a public institution, make friends with your elected representatives on the Education Committees of your state Senate or Assembly. Seek help from them in addressing these problems. The maximum pressure point for all academic institutions is the flow of alumni and government funds that support the institution. Focus your activities on these vulnerable points of the university system. […]

Hat tip: Carolina Journal

Here are some of my prior posts on public school and college stunts pulled by so-called ‘tolerant’ liberals who can’t seem to tolerate any viewpoint outside of their own:

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Based in North Carolina, Sister Toldjah is a 15+ year veteran of blogging with an emphasis on mainstream media bias and the culture wars.

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