ANNAPOLIS — Megan Dillard came to the university from traditionally conservative southern Virginia to broaden her political horizons.
But what she found in her government and politics classes was that liberals — students and professors alike — were less receptive to her ideologies.
“[Debate] always tended to be lopsided,” said the senior communication and government and politics major. “I spoke up a few times, where at which point I was pretty much attacked by my fellow class members.”
This is what some state delegates hope to discourage in proposing an Academic Bill of Rights to the General Assembly — prohibiting any form of political or religious indoctrination in the classroom — but other officials deem it unnecessary and against the spirit of higher education.
Del. William Frank (R-Baltimore Co.), the bill’s lead sponsor, said although the University System of Maryland already has policies preserving academic freedom, he found them to be inadequate.
In most cases, the bias occurs between liberal professors and the conservative minorities in their classes, Frank said, but he was confident the opposite could occur.
“Unfortunately there is a chilling effect on freedom of speech on many of our college campuses,” Frank said. “This is not a partisan issue. It’s about fairness in the classroom.”
Vincent Brannigan, a member of the system’s faculty council and a fire protection engineering professor at the university, has monitored academic freedom at the university since 1969 and said it should be part of the academic process that students’ ideas are strongly challenged.
“Ideas are to be attacked, individuals are to be respected,” he said. “Some students do not understand that academic discourse is not always smooth.”
System Chancellor Brit Kirwan did not attend the bill’s hearing but sent a written testimony, saying the issue is also a concern for him but should be handled “within the higher education committee, not in the legislature.” He said the concerns of the bill have already been addressed in Board of Regents policy.
The system’s policy on faculty, student and institutional rights and responsibilities states that “students have the right of free and honest inquiry and expression in their courses” and “grades must be assigned without prejudice or bias.”
Brandon Butler, a senior political science major at Frostburg State University, said he didn’t think professors would penalize students academically for having differing views, but it is still a “pervasive” issue.
“What happens is the climate in the classroom is such that a professor would allow liberal students to voice their opinions, or they would voice their own opinions of a liberal persuasion, and then, as Megan [Dillard] said, would attack the conservative students,” Butler said. “It’s almost as if those who scream loudest are heard, and those who are silent stay that way.”
In many government and politics classes, it is unavoidable that the professor shares his or her opinions, Del. Mary-Dulany James (D-Cecil and Harford) said. Professors are often more or less qualified to teach a given class based on their beliefs, she said.
“I don’t want to legislate how schools conduct business,” James said.
Del. John Bohanan (D-St. Mary’s) drew the example of Ward Churchill, a University of Colorado professor whose essay “Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens” sparked controversy for arguing that victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were not innocent victims.
University spokesman George Cathcart said he was not familiar with the bill itself but had heard discussion of the issue on a national level. While he did not know of any specific complaints receiving attention at the university, Cathcart said ensuring academic freedom is a priority on the campus.
“An overriding concern is always going to be academic freedom,” Cathcart said. “Any time a complaint of that kind would surface at the university, we would investigate.”
Cathcart said he thought the policies already in place and a tradition of openness in the classroom was enough to discourage the problem.
