I just received the attached call for papers for a special issue of the
Journal of Business Research on business social responsibility.  The
deadline is today, but the editors are allowing for a brief extension of
time of unspecified duration to receive worthwhile papers.  If anyone
has a completed but unpublished paper that might qualify and your would
like to publish in JBR, please send it on to one of the editors.    

Ross D. Petty
Professor of Marketing Law
Babson College
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Academy of Legal Studies in Business (ALSB) Talk
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Pearson Liddell
Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2006 6:59 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Academic Bill of Rights (?)

This is a case where the solution is infinitely worse than the problem. 
This would create witchhunts on all sides of the political spectrum. 
All of academia should be sounding an alarm against this type of
legislation.  It would effectively end academic freedom.

Pearson

>>> "White, Nancy Jean" <[log in to unmask]> 11/29/06 4:59 PM >>>
It was looked at in Michigan but did not go anyplace. Here is a copy of
an op/ed piece I did for the local paper last spring on the topic:

 

The Latest Witch Hunt: College Professors

 

Remember the joke that goes something like this? I didn't try and
prevent them form oppressing the blacks because I was not black. I
didn't try and prevent them from oppressing the Jews because I was not
Jewish. I didn't try and prevent them from oppressing the Mexicans
because I was not Mexican. I didn't try and prevent them from oppressing
the old because I was not old. When they began to oppress me there was
no one left to try and prevent it.

 

The latest government oppression on the horizon is ABOR or the Academic
Bill of Rights. This is a nice sounding name for disastrous legislation
coming to a state near you. It has only been looked at in Michigan and
no bills are pending as far as I know, but it could happen here. The
idea is that too many college professors are liberals and something has
to be done. What can be done? ABOR legislation would set up government
boards to review faculty hires to make sure colleges are hiring those
with the "right" political leanings. The legislation would create
government boards to review curriculum and course design, again to make
sure it has the "right" political message. The legislation would set up
government boards to review the speakers who are brought onto college
campuses to make sure they have the "right" political message. 

 

One state, Arizona, has a bill pending that would require a college or
university to develop an alternative course if a student has a
"personal" objection to the content (or part of the content) of a
course. This could effectively shut down a university. The idea is to
require conservative courses be offered to balance liberal ones, but
this legislation could easily backfire. What if a student claims to have
a personal objection to capitalism? What if a student claims to have a
personal objection to democracy? What if a student has a personal
objection to American History?  

 

ABOR and similar legislation is backed by millions of dollars from far
right-wing foundations. The leading proponent is David Horowitz who
recently published a book entitled, The Professors: The 101 Most
Dangerous Academics in America (Regency Publishing Inc., 2006). He is on
a crusade to blacklist professors who teach or do research in areas he
does not support, such as Women's studies or Islamic studies. 

 

For example, Horowitz condemns Eric Foner a Columbia University (New
York) history professor for quoting African-American Paul Robeson who
said, "The patriot is the person who is never satisfied with his
country." 

 

Horowitz condemns Michael Schwartz of SUNY Stony Brook as an obsessed
Marxist because the department in which Schwartz teaches has a class
called "Stratification" which Schwartz has never taught. The course
"purports to investigate the 'causes and consequences of the unequal
distribution of wealth, power, prestige and other social values in
different societies,'".

 

The vast majority of academics welcomes and encourages diverse views in
the classroom. I teach a course on the search for Native American
justice through the law. I get some diverse views in that class and
welcome them. When I teach a law class I tell the students I do not care
so much what their answer is to a legal problem; I care how they present
their argument. 

 

This is a solution looking for a problem. Penn State recently released a
study of conservative vs. liberal bias on campus. In five years they had
13 complaints of bias. (Note: every public university already has
processes in place for reporting and complaining of bias). Thirteen
complaints from a student body of about 40,000 on the main campus, about
40,000 on other campuses, about 8,000 faculty, and more than 177,000
different courses! And the conservatives should be careful what they ask
for because the study revealed the majority of those 13 were against
professors who were too conservative! Of course, maybe the next
government board to be set up under ABOR will be to review students to
make sure they have the "right" ideas and if not they cannot get into
college at all!

 

 

Nancy J. White

Department of Finance and Law

Sloan 329

Central Michigan University

 

CMU Webpage: http://faculty.cba.cmich.edu/webs/white2nj/
<http://faculty.cba.cmich.edu/webs/white2nj/> 

CMU office: 989-774-1842

CMU fax: 989-774-6456

CMU email: [log in to unmask]

 

________________________________

From: Academy of Legal Studies in Business (ALSB) Talk
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Keith A Maxwell
Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2006 4:07 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Academic Bill of Rights (?)

 

This bill was defeated in last year's session of the Arizona
Legislature, but my sources tell me it could be reintroduced. 

 

Arizona SB 1331 

"Each university under the jurisdiction of the Arizona board of regents
and each community college under the jurisdiction of a community college
district shall adopt procedures by which students who object to any
course, coursework, learning material or activity on the basis that it
is personally offensive shall be provided without financial or academic
penalty an alternative course, alternative coursework, alternative
learning materials or alternative activity. Objection to a course,
coursework, learning material or activity on the basis that it is
personally offensive includes objections that the course, coursework,
learning material or activity conflicts with the student's beliefs or
practices in sex, morality or religion."

 

Two questions:

 

Is anyone aware of any states that already have such a statute similar
to what SB 1331 proposed?

 

More interestingly, such a law aside, if a law professor assigns a case
such as Lawrence v. Texas, and a student objects to it because its
holding protects homosexual behavior, does the professor have any
ethical obligation to honor the student's demand that he/she be given an
alternative assignment? I can't imagine!! Of course not!! Never!! But I
might be wrong....

 

Keith

 

 

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Keith A. Maxwell
Nat S. and Marian W. Rogers Professor   
Professor of Legal Studies and Ethics
School of Business and Leadership
University of Puget Sound
Tacoma, WA 98416
Office Phone: 253.879.3703
www.ups.edu/faculty/maxwell/home.htm
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