By GUY KOVNER
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Instructors quickly saw the action as a threat to academic freedom, but the
student who claimed credit for the protest said it was about left-leaning bias
in the lecture hall.
The stars, which unnerved some instructors, were accompanied by a copy of a
state Education Code section prohibiting the teaching of communism with the
"intent to indoctrinate" students.
"It makes me a little anxious," philosophy instructor Michael
Aparicio said.
Ed Buckley, the college's vice president of academic affairs, weighed in with a
defense of academic freedom, saying in an e-mail to SRJC faculty that it
includes teaching "difficult and controversial material."
But political science major Molly McPherson of Rohnert Park said she had only
intended to start a discussion about the personal politics of SRJC humanities
instructors by posting the stars.
"It's a big issue," said McPherson, president of the SRJC
Republicans, a campus club. "The opinion of the far left is presented as
fact, with no alternative."
Some students fear their grades will suffer if they express a contrary view, she
said.
The red stars were not intended as a personal attack on individual instructors,
she said. "I regret that it was taken that way."
German instructor Sylvia Wasson, said her colleagues
were "overreacting" in a flurry of e-mails exchanged on campus since
the stars and code citation were discovered on the doors in Emeritus Hall on
Friday morning.
Wasson, who had McPherson in four German classes, described her as an A
student, a "very bright woman" and a "critical thinker who
happens to belong to the wrong party on campus."
Aparicio and others said they found McPherson's tactics
"sensationalist," intended to get media attention.
When faculty members called a news conference to discuss the stars, McPherson
came forward to acknowledge her action on behalf of the SRJC Republicans, a
75-member chapter of the California College Republicans, a statewide group.
SRJC's Academic Senate is scheduled to discuss the
matter at 3:15 p.m. today in the Dyle Student Center
and may start a move to repeal the Education Code section cited by the student
Republicans, said George Freund, a philosophy instructor.
Faculty members were outraged by the stealthy posting and surprised to find the
code prohibition on the advocacy of communism, he said.
The code's first sentence says: "No teacher giving instruction in any
school ... shall advocate or teach communism with the intent to indoctrinate or
to inculcate in the mind of any pupil a preference for communism."
"You can't teach social theory without teaching Marxism," Freund
said. In all his lectures, Freund said he covers "the best argument for
and against" any philosophy.
Marco Giordano, an English instructor, called the code section
"antithetical to academic freedom."
"The accusation of teaching communism in the classroom is laughable,"
Giordano said, noting communism is not illegal and the U.S. Constitution is
"indifferent" to both communism and capitalism.
Still, he said, the student Republican's actions were "a little
creepy" and a "revival of McCarthyist
tactics."
Buckley called the protest "an unhelpful way to express their
dissatisfaction" with instructors.
McPherson said the Republicans hope to hold a public forum on the issue.
"One-sided education is indoctrination," she said.
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Copyright © 2005 The Press Democrat