Not many students are aware of their rights when it comes to appealing a grade they feel they don’t deserve. The Spectrum student handbook reveals that ETSU students may appeal any grade the student feels is given “in a malicious, capricious, erroneous, or arbitrary manner.”
However a new student group, the Society for Intellectual Diversity (SID), believes the current guidelines are insufficient, especially when it comes to protecting students from being politically indoctrinated by a partisan professor.
According to members of the group, some professors on campus actively in-doctrinate students by promoting their own political views in the classroom, and in some cases, a student’s grade may depend on whether or not the student agrees with the professor’s personal politics.
“I have had students complain to me. I call them refugees from political correctness,” said Dr. Paul Kamolnick, faculty adviser to the SID club and sociology professor.
“Students have the right to an education free from indoctrination,” Chris Strode, SID president, said. “While professors should have the freedom to teach things in their discipline, they should avoid bringing their personal views into the classroom.”
The pamphlets distri-buted by the SID club draw heavily from the Students for Academic Freedom Information Center, an organization founded by David Horowitz.
Horowitz, an author and frequent guest pundit on several cable news programs, will be visiting the ETSU campus on Wednesday to share his opinions on academic freedom. The lecture will be held in the Brown Hall auditorium at 7 p.m.
Horowitz recently published the book “The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America.” Horowitz also writes regularly for NewsMax magazine and edits his own news Web site, FrontPageMag.com.
“SID is a very new organization and Horowitz’s lecture is designed in part as a means of recruiting individuals who may be interested in the goals of SID,” Kamolnick said.
Many professors however, question the claims made by SID and take issue with their proposed Academic Bill of Rights.
“The premise behind the Academic Bill of Rights is that professors presenting new or controversial ideas in the classroom will somehow ‘indoctrinate’ students because they lack ‘sufficient knowledge and ripeness of judgment,'” Dr. Steven Gross, English professor, said, quoting from the pamphlet provided by the SID group. “This view of students as being incapable of mature judgment should offend every ETSU student.”
Biology professor Dr. Thomas Laughlin believes the claims are exaggerated. “I have been a student at two public universities and have taught at four public universities and one private college over the past 30 years.I have never had an experience that showed faculty members to be using their positions as platforms for political parties or intellectual sects,”he said. “I think they are, at best, trying to make a mountain out of much less than a molehill.”
Dr. Jack Mooney, a journalism professor, said he believes that most claims of discrimination arise more from misunderstanding than from any attempt to indoctrinate the student.
“I’ve been here for 36 years and I haven’t seen anything I’d consider to be discrimination in the classroom,” Mooney said. “When a student hears something that is contrary to what they’ve been raised to believe, or when a professor pushes a student to explain their reasoning, I can see how a student could feel uncomfortable in some classes.”
“But part of a college education is being exposed to new and different ideas. There is a value in being exposed to that,” Mooney continued. “The biggest complaint I’ve heard is that students don’t voice their opinions enough. I’ve said outrageous things just to get a response out of my students,” Mooney said. “If you disagree with something you should be able to explain why.”
Many professors perceive disturbing political undertones in SID’s literature. “It’s a supreme irony that an organization which claims to be interested in freedom of expression lists as one of its goals the revelation of faculty members’ political affiliations,” Dr. Don Johnson, English professor said, noting that SID’s pamphlet encouraged students to research the party registration of faculty members.
“Just what are SID members supposed to do with the information once they have learned the political affinities of a department’s members? Are they supposed to demand more hires of the minority persuasion, although the group says that political orientation should not be a factor of hiring?” asked Dr. Thomas Holmes, English professor.
Kamolnick was quick to deny that any member of the SID group had researched the political affiliations of any faculty member. “Absolutely not,” he said. “I view it as an important but insufficient way to try and understand why there is, in certain departments, the likelihood of a liberal to left liberal consensus.”
Dr. Anthony Cavender, anthropology professor, said he doubts the presence of a faculty-driven political agenda. “In my 17 years of experience in higher education I’m inclined to say that the typical university is not dominated by liberal professors seeking to brainwash students with so-called liberal philosophy,” he said. “ETSU, even during the tumultuous 1960’s, has been a hotbed of rest. If liberal brainwashing has been present at ETSU, it certainly hasn’t been very effective.”
Kamolnick stressed that SID is open to people of any political persuasion. “I think it is very important not to view SID’s presence on campus as some kind of right wing vigilante group, but rather as an agent inaugurating a discussion on campus about academic freedom and its meaning,” Kamolnick said, noting that the club has both liberal and conservative members.
Still, many professors object to the accusations of favoritism and indoctrination made by SID members.
“The sorts of generic attacks the club and its adviser are making – as well as the broad attacks which Mr. Horowitz regularly makes – are the sort usually associated with totalitarian ideologues who wish to silence disagreements,” Dr. Melvin Page, history professor, said. “I certainly hope none of the individuals at ETSU making such accusations are of this stripe, and they can demonstrate they are not by being quite specific in presenting details and evidence to support their claims.”
A jointly written and endorsed statement sent to the East Tennessean from the Philosophy and Humanities departments cautioned against a rush to judgment. “The allegations of faculty misconduct are serious ones and should be accompanied by evidence sufficient to substantiate the claims being made. Accusations of this gravity ought not to be made trivially, nor, if they can be proved to be true, should they be treated lightly,” the letter stated.
If it is found that there are significant concerns from students with regard to academic freedom, the SID group hopes to create a position for a student ombudsperson. Students who feel uncomfortable discussing a problem with a faculty member could bypass the normal appeals route and file a complaint directly to the ombudsperson.
According to Strode, “There is a formal grade appeal process, but no official grievance mechanism for students to submit complaints about professor bias in the classroom, or viewpoint discrimination by a program of study toward a student.”
“The Student Bill of Rights would establish a mechanism for students to voice complaints in a formal matter, totally independent of their grade in the classroom,” Strode said.
Many faculty and administration officials say the current appeals process is already equipped to deal with the issues the SID group has raised.
“I cannot understand on what basis the Society for Intellectual Diversity is claiming that such a case would not be dealt with by our appeals process,” Dr. Theresa McGarry, English professor said. McGarry has sat on three grade appeals committees over the past year.
Dr. Martha Copp, chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, agreed. “The university’s appeals process is far more equitable than the ombudsperson tactic. The appeals process is democratic. No one person determines fairness. A committee composed of students and faculty collectively examine and discuss the issues,” she said.
Dr. Steven Bader, senior associate vice president for student affairs, pointed out that the university recently added a declaration to the student handbook concerning students’ rights and freedoms in the classroom which specifically states that “student performance should be evaluated solely on an academic basis, not on opinions or conduct in matters unrelated to academic standards.

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