The Des Moines Register this morning covers a widespread phenomenon as it exists in Iowa: the fear of speaking out honestly about their political views which grips many conservative students. The article is "balanced" in the sense of noting that conservatives, a beleagured minority, are better—organized than liberals on campus, and that some liberal students see no problems.

Although mentioned, the article gives short shrift to the problem of biased faculty grading conservative students down, simply because they believe the only legitinmate or intelligent position is their own. This conceit is very widespread among leftist faculty, and only betrays their own limited smarts.

Based on many anecdotes (I live in Berkeley, after all), ideological grading is a severe problem. I believe that it should be as firing offense for a teacher or professor to indoctrinate students, or apply an ideological test to student writing or class participation. Of course, given the problems of proof and of tenure, it will never happen. But that does not make the practice of bias in the classroom any less abusive.

Hat tip: Ed Lasky

Thomas Lifson   10 24 04