College to apologize to Bush for professor
I'm wondering if perhaps the school's administration would have reacted the same if if the professor had required pro-war letters? I'm guessing this issue would likely never have seen the light of day.
WASHINGTON, March 7 (UPI) -- The president of a California college is sending a letter to President Bush apologizing for an instructor who gave students extra credit for writing anti-war missives to the White House.
Citrus College President Louis E. Zellers wrote that Professor Rosalyn Kahn "did abuse her authority" in assigning students in her Speech 106 class to write letters to Bush protesting the possible war with Iraq.
"Students were clear in their understanding that they would only receive credit if they wrote 'protest' letters," Zellers said in a letter of thanks to FIRE -- the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education -- a Philadelphia-based campus watchdog group.
FIRE's Chief Executive Officer, Thor L. Halvorssen, praised the school. "When fully informed of a frightening violation of freedom of conscience, the college administration responded swiftly and boldly to restore liberty and to undo the harm already done," he said.
Citrus is a two-year community college in Glendora, Calif., in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains in eastern Los Angeles County. Kahn's Speech 106 class is a required course.
Kahn made a similar assignment with state Sen. Jack Scott, D-Pasadena, as the intended recipient. "Again, all students understood that they would only receive extra credit if they wrote letters expressing a specific political agenda," Zellers wrote.
So the infraction here was being insufficiently expressive of support for our President? Or simply requiring students to write a paper expressing a particular point of view? Correct me if I'm wrong here, but, hello...free speech?? If you have an issue with the way the professor went about this assignment, then you have a personnel issue to deal with. I don't agree with the way the professor conducted himself, but this is something that should have been dealt with internally, not turned into fodder for Conservative talk radio.
Why does this have to rise to the level of cause celebre? Because being anti-war is not fashionable? Give me a break....
