Professors under fire: Accusations of campus liberalism undermine intellectual freedom

Central to the idea of college campuses and education is the academic freedom professors enjoy in teaching. This freedom allows professors to give their expert opinion and analysis on the subjects they teach. Alarmingly, this academic freedom is now under fire from conservative students who say college professors are too liberal.

The credentials of college professors are vastly underrated. In order to get a doctorate, which is what one must have to be a professor, one must endure four years of undergraduate work and five years of graduate study. Then one must be willing to move frequently to build up a resume and reputation by continually speaking at seminars and getting published in national academic journals. It is not an easy task.

Academic freedom is one of those things that makes college different than high school. High school teachers read from a book and give basic instruction, but university-level professors teach their subject and provide interpretation. After all, they are the experts who have done the research, written the books, and become world-renowned. By the time one is a professor, he is regarded as an expert in that field who has contributed to the body of knowledge on the subject.

This issue goes deeper than the complaints of recent students, as for many years there has been a social rivalry between great scholars who base their thoughts and philosophies on the logic they have studied and seen, and those of faith who want to base everything on religious principles. It’s a feud as old as the earth itself.

College campuses are where some of the great ideas of the world come from, as professors can think, read, study and experiment with unimaginable concepts. Go into the office of any faculty member, and you will see many books that they have written and read, as each professor is truly an expert in his or her field.

Allowing students to dictate what is taught and in what manner is ridiculous. I can only imagine the slanted view students would want taught about the civil rights movement, for example, in the racially charged South.

If conservative students don’t like the liberal opinions some professors have, then perhaps they need to look themselves in the mirror because they are what is wrong with this country.

In the mode of conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, a man who talks a lot but takes little action, these students make spectacles to news channels for publicity. They want someone to step in and make change, but the responsibility for that lies within themselves.

These conservative students that do not like liberal professors have an option – which is to go to school for nine years, get a doctorate, become a expert in the field, and then they can teach the class any way they want to. Until then, they don’t have the educational credentials to determine what should be taught.

Conservative leaders often attack the correlation between university faculty members and liberalism. I don’t think it is some vast conspiracy, as I feel it boils down to a real simple idea: the smarter you are, the more liberal you are.