Vicious Rants of an Angry Yellow Man

Academic freedom or brain washing?

Recently an UCLA alumni group called the Bruin Alumni Association made headlines by coming out with a list of liberal professors at UCLA that the BAA considers too radical to be teaching at a public university. The group is willing to pay students to bring in tapes or lecture notes from these professors so that it can be demonstrated that they indoctrinate students. Of course the liberals are complaining about interfernce with academic freedom and that it is mean spirited to single out certain professors. Well, this is the same argument I made last year when a group of liberal called for the firing of John Woo, a law professor at Berkely, who was an apologist for the Bush administration. I did not see any liberal group coming to the defense of Woo then. As usual, I feel both sides just want their views to be heard and not the others.

I checked out the BAA website and frankly I was impressed with the length Andrew Jones, the writer of the site, goes to give a biography of each of the professors. I don't know if everything in the biographies are true but Jones does put out a lot information and references. I would have to say some of the views of these professors are way out in left field. The only thing is that Jones has not proven in these biographies that these professors are indoctrinating students with their views in class. For example, being an Asian American, I have heard of Jerry Kang. He is a law professor whose view on affirmative action I strongly disagree with. Jones made a point that Kang felt affirmative action was partly responsible for his being at UCLA. Kang had said that UCLA needed an Asian American law professor when the only one it had left for Georgetown and so he was hired. I think Kang was just showing his Asian upbringing which calls for humblenes. Kang graduated from Harvard with a degree in physics and then got his J.D. from Harvard. He graduated magna cum laude in both instances. He hardly needed affirmative action to get a job at UCLA. I believe his view on affirmative action is wrong but I did not see anyone come out with any evidence that he tried to indoctrinate students with his views.

The same goes for John Woo. I don't think much of the Bush administration especially its handling of the war. Woo is one of Bush's apologists on the torturing and unending detention of prisoners of war. The liberals at Berkeley called for firing. Again there was never any evidence of poor teaching or indoctrination in his classroom. I am not defending Kang and Woo because they are Asian Americans. I am defending them because having some knowledge about them I see where both liberals and conservatives are just trying to get people they disagree with.

You don't have to agree with anybody just because he is a so-called intellectual. But it would be beneficial if everybody listens to both sides of the argument before making up his mind. I don't agree with John Roberts on many of his views but if I have an opportunity to listen to one of his lectures, I would do so. The same with Ruth Ginsburg. Keeping an open mind is the best way to prevent indoctrination. If a student at a law school like Berkeley or UCLA can be indoctrinated by a bias professor, then that student wasn't qualify to be admitted in the first place.