Pennsylvania Prof Speaks Out Against Academic Freedom Bill

Here is a column by a professor at Penn State. Her rant against public scrutiny in the academy explains how leftist professors view their role as educators. It smacks of elitism when she writes that intellectuals tend to value lofty goals like social justice and equal rights. Right. So why didn't the public intellectuals support the liberation of Afghan women? Why do so many self-proclaimed intellectuals oppose foreign policies that would eliminate threats to the world from the likes of Saddam Hussein, Kim Jung Il and the mullahs of Iran? Leftist professors only value their own version of social justice, which includes affirmative action, redistribution of wealth and anti-growth environmental policies. Here are some quotes from the Professor's article:

House Resolution 177, known as the "Academic Freedom Bill," is currently under consideration in the Pennsylvania General Assembly.

A liberal-arts-educated person is one who prizes freedom of thought and expression and who makes principled arguments in favor of things such as equality and social justice.

One might imagine that intellectuals, nationwide, are speaking out in brief and at length based on their knowledge of growing injustices, and their sense of civic responsibility. As education leaders they may be countering and correcting for what they know is not "fair and balanced" in the media mainstream.

If this is so, the solution is not censoring educators with intellectual and social conscience, but initiating broad societal changes that will bring integrity to the meanings of liberty, freedom and democracy.