Leftist professors: "Don't quote me on that!"

Colleges and universities are stocked with professors, associates, and teaching assistants who think that by virtue of them having captive audiences of fresh, moldable minds, the teachers have license to indoctrinate their students with whatever their ideology may be. Whether the class be biology or history, it seems that college teachers want to inject their own political propaganda (overwhelmingly liberal) into the curriculum. Those of us who have been to college have likely seen it firsthand.

Well, an alumni association of UCLA has had enough. They are recruiting students at UCLA to provide evidence of teachers who are "abusive, one-sided or off-topic". From the LA Times:

The year-old Bruin Alumni Assn. says its "Exposing UCLA's Radical Professors" initiative takes aim at faculty "actively proselytizing their extreme views in the classroom, whether or not the commentary is relevant to the class topic." Although the group says it is concerned about radical professors of any political stripe, it has named an initial "Dirty 30" of teachers it identifies with left-wing or liberal causes.

Some of the instructors mentioned accuse the association of conducting a witch hunt that threatens to harm the teaching atmosphere, and at least one of the group's advisory board members has resigned because he considers the bounty offers inappropriate. The university said it will warn the association that selling copies of professors' lectures would violate campus rules and raise copyright issues.

"Threatens to harm the teaching atmosphere"? Of course it does! It threatens the stranglehold that these leftist twits have on higher education. It threatens their comfort zones, knowing that taxpayers will actually get to know what drivel they're spewing to impressionable young people. It threatens their employment if enough tuition-paying parents say "I'm not going to send my kid to UCLA with that kind of pap passing as academics!" Continuing:

On one of its websites, the Bruin Alumni Group names education professor Peter McLaren as No. 1 on its "The Dirty Thirty: Ranking the Worst of the Worst." It says "this Canadian native teaches the next generation of teachers and professors how to properly indoctrinate students."

McLaren, in a telephone interview, called the alumni group's tactics "beneath contempt."

"Any sober, concerned citizen would look at this and see right through it as a reactionary form of McCarthyism. Any decent American is going to see through this kind of right-wing propaganda. I just find it has no credibility," he said.

The website also lists history professor Ellen DuBois, saying she "is in every way the modern female academic: militant, impatient, accusatory, and radical — very radical." In response, DuBois said: "This is a totally abhorrent invitation to students to participate in a witch hunt … against their professors."

But DuBois minimized the effect on campus, saying "it's not even clear this is much other than the ill-considered action of a handful, if that, of individuals."

If it "has no credibility" and only has a "handful of individuals", then you leftists don't have anything to worry about, do you? Also, nice job of a leftist professor trying to convince people he's not a leftist: "right-wing propaganda"!

These academic types are sure getting worked up over the idea that people outside of their campus echo chambers may find out about their own words. I guess when you're in a position of power over students to where you don't have to defend your ideas or beliefs to the "peons" in your classes, then it can be a tad bit disconcerting if the general public, over whom you have no control, get wind of what's coming out of your piehole and into the minds of kids.

Please...spare me the "academic witch hunt" garbage. That dog won't hunt! If you're getting a paycheck for "educating kids", and said paycheck is being partly/fully financed by the taxpayers, it is not unreasonable for said taxpayers to know what you're telling their kids. If you don't want to have to defend your views or teachings, then don't teach. Be prepared to defend your ideas, if they're that damned good!