Federalism, federalism, federalism. Strong fences make good neighbors.
Shit, Berube beat me to publication.
Um, this Berube link is on topic.
Same shit, different day. This is all about lowering the standards of discourse. If you can't find academics who are qualified to preach your views, lower the standards and force them in.
Reynolds is a dishonest hack whose been through the process and knows damn well no one is asked about their politics in the interviews.
Conservatives as victims. What a crock.
I think that the main problem here is your desire to have some kind of respect for Reynolds.
This is an early, wedge version of the practice of putting ideological commisars and spies in classrooms. Or if you want to play the Godwin card, you could compare it to the practice of monitoring orthodoxy in authoritarian non-fascist regimes.
Conservatives would normally oppose the practice of soliciting reports on teachers from resentful students. In fact, they do oppose this practice, when it's "PC" which is in question.
I don't want to make it seem that I would support true conservatives or true libertarians, because I wouldn't, but the fake ones we have today are a much nastier kind of thing.
I wonder how much of this "intellectual diversity" stuff is the Right really caring what gets taught in universities vs. them just trying to piss off the professors at the public universities so that the schools agree to become semi-privatized. There seems to be a big push in a lot of states for public colleges to agree to take less state money in exchange for more autonomy because state governments want to get out of fully funding higher education. I wonder if part of this is to encourage the trend towards semi-privatization of state schools – we'll make your life so miserable that you come begging for us to leave you alone.
I think it's much simpler than we're all making it out to be. Universities are next, is all.
The right thrives on boogeymen, and what better boogeyman than the one to whom Head of Household is giving over vast chunks of his savings? Say there, breadwinner, is your youngster taking classes with Ward Churchill?
There seems to be a big push in a lot of states for public colleges to agree to take less state money in exchange for more autonomy because state governments want to get out of fully funding higher education.
In the second link I posted in 2, Berube points out that the demands for more snooping into faculty politics come after massive state funding cuts that have led to massive tuition hikes. So I don't think more autonomy is the tradeoff. Really I agree with 5/8 -- this is all about sticking it to liberal professors. And there's also a bit of 3 to it -- some of this is pushed by advanced versions of the intro-to-philosophy yobbo who keeps saying "This is all opinion, so my opinion can't be wrong," and who sees intellectual diversity as equal respect for all opinions, regardless of their intellectual support.
I'm not saying that every single person who talks about intellectual diversity feels this way, but the honest folks alone wouldn't be enough to give this any political traction.
This is why ambitious grad students should get ahead of the curve by registering as Republicans.
Seriously-- good thing I've been at work securing my conservative credentials.
What's next? Affirmative action for people who cut their hair with a Flowbee?
I think he must be bullshitting or very strange.
Or, perhaps, just a wee bit intellectually dishonest.
I believe that by not registering with any party I won't get counted towards diversity. A number of the write-ups of the ideology surveys see things in terms of a left or liberal/conservative ratio, even though there's usually a sizable moderate group in the data.
#16: There's a thought. I'm registered as an Independent. Take that, conservatives!
As a minority, Reynolds knows that this will benefit him. Duh.