items tagged with Campus Voices

What's been happening on the world wide webs that you should know about?  I'm glad you asked!  Or at the very least, I'm glad I planted the idea in your head and you seem kind of interested.  Click, click, click away at the following links for some Free Exchange related goodness.

• Lisa Schulter informs us that her Women's Studies courses were not... wait for it... indoctrination!  Funny how the world looks a lot different when a person actually enrolls in a course that has been unjustifiably vilified.
  
• Rob Weir suggests backing slowly away from these academic slugfests.  We're particularly fond of numbers 7 and 8.
• While Horowitz and ACTA search for ghosts to defend some bizarre conceptualization of academic freedom, the Center for Science in the Public Interest points to some actual threats to this cherished ideal.
• As you may remember, we started a meme last week asking academics, "Why do you teach?"  In addition to our own fabulous guest bloggers, a growing number of blogger-scholars have taken up the gauntlet and provided some fascinating answers.  Head on over to our newly created Campus Voices section (added to the menu bar to your left) and find out what drives people to be educators.  We'll keep it updated as new folks chime in.
  
  

[ed note: In mid-November, the first Campus Voices panel titled "Controversy in the Classroom" was held at the University of Chicago.  Kyle Gracey of Chicago attended the event and was kind enough to write up a summary of the evening.  Thanks Kyle!]

The University of Chicago's long history of academic freedom came out unscathed following a November 15^th faculty/student dialogue on teaching controversial issues. The "Controversy in the Classroom" panel was sponsored by Free Exchange, Campus Progress, and the American Civil Liberties Union at the University of Chicago.

The faculty panel included Lauren Berlant, English Professor; Wendy Doniger, History of Religions Professor in the Divinity School; and Richard Shweder, Professor of Human Development. The professors were invited for their particular familiarity with teaching controversial topics, including criticisms of modern religions and lesbian and gay sexuality.

Most students, and the faculty presenters, had never heard of David Horowitz or legislative attempts to control what professors could say. "Are people really fighting classroom speech?" asked Shweder. "It's basically just one guy," shouted a student in the audience.

The panel strongly defended the debate of ideas in the classroom as central to understanding what preexisting opinions, knowledge, and misconceptions students brought to the classroom. This was especially true when the topics were controversial, they agreed.

Audience members specifically asked the panel if they had ever introduced their own political or religious opinions into the discussion when it wasn't relevant. The panelists said no, and said they were often unlikely to do it even when it matched the topic. They also questioned whether students even paid attention to what their professors' off-topic opinions were, since students sometimes didn't even seem to listen when the professor was lecturing on-topic.