The Free Press: Speaking Truth to Power Sat Aug 30 2008
Departments
Ohio

Ohio’s new campus brownshirts
by Free Press staff
in Journal issue March-April 2005
March 21, 2005

First they steal elections and now they’re coming for the professors. Nazi Germany in the 1930’s? No, just the latest bill introduced in the Ohio Senate by the emboldened authoritarian forces of the Right. Ohio Senator Larry Mumphers (R-Marion) introduced Senate Bill 24. It has a nice Orwellian twist. Instead of protecting the last true marketplace of ideas in the every-increasing corporatized and militarized United States, the bill dictates that professors “shall not infringe the academic freedom and quality of education of their students by persistently introducing controversial matters into the classroom or coursework that has no relation to their subject of study….”

Unlike politicians in Ohio’s Statehouse, the bill legally mandates “intellectual honesty” and further requires that “the institution shall provide its students with a learning environment in which the students have access to a broad range of serious scholarly opinion pertaining to the subject they study.”

The bill goes so far as to dictate how the students are to be graded: “Students shall be graded solely on the basis of their reasoned answers and appropriate knowledge of the subject. …”

The bill goes on to state that, “Faculty and instructors shall not use their courses or their positions for the purpose of political, ideological, religious or anti-religious indoctrination.”

Senator Mumphers says that the bill is a response to the systematic bias in higher education. But don’t look for him to require the teaching of Marxism or socialism in economic classes or business schools. Rather, his bill is aimed at suppressing alternative academic views that run contrary to the Ohio’s far Right Republican agenda.

So, alongside C. Wright Mills’ Power Elite and Robert Dahl’s Who Governs? in introductory political science classes, Mumphers envisions the major theoretical works of Ronald Reagan as they appeared in Boy’s Life magazine.


Email this article to a friend




1240 Bryden Road Columbus, Ohio 43209 Ph/Fx 614.253.2571 Email truth@freepress.org
  

Don't forget to check out articles from 2007 and 2008

Ohio

"Redfern backs corrupted Noes; Wins ODP Chair seat"
  December 20, 2005
  Rady Ananda

"Ohio AFL-CIO: Pryce earns “F”, DeWine “Barely Passing” in “Mid-Term Report Cards” grading 2005 votes by Ohio Congressional delegation"
  December 20, 2005
  Tom Powell-Bullock

"Report on Ohio Democratic Party election"
  December 20, 2005
  Marian Lupo, Co-Chair, CIRCA

"Blackwell lifts Libertarian campaign theme: Freedom to Prosper a great idea"
  December 19, 2005
  Robert Butler, Executive Director, Libertarian Party of Ohio

"Cleveland AFL-CIO announces unanimous support of Ted Strickland for governor"
  December 19, 2005
  Jess Goode

"Does the Democratic Party need to be more democratic to win?"
  December 19, 2005
  Clifford O. Arnebeck, Jr.

"Ohio State Building and Construction Trades Council endorses Ted Strickland for Governor"
  December 13, 2005
  Jesse Goode

"Ashcroft speaks with Reformation Ohio’s Rod Parsley"
  December 7, 2005
  Rady Ananda

"Holiday Hop hears about the heat"
  December 6, 2005
  Rady Ananda

"Strickland wins 18th, 19th, 20th county party endorsements"
  November 30, 2005
  Jess Goode

"Fraudbuster Bob Fitrakis announces bid for governorship"
  November 28, 2005
  Ohio Green Party

"Theocracy rising: Blackwell and Parsley intend to hijack Ohio"
  October 27, 2005
  Bob Fitrakis

"Ohio's supermax on trial"
  September 6, 2005
  Daniel Sturm

"Protests at the Dispatch continue over Bill Moss cartoon"
  August 25, 2005
  Robbt

"Mr. Bill Moss's Light Shines Brightly!"
  August 13, 2005
  Jamia Shepherd

"Mr. Bill Moss's Light Shines Brightly!"
  August 3, 2005
  Jamia Shepherd

"GAP visits OSU"
  July 20, 2005
  Marley Greiner

"Bush Greeted by Angry Protesters; Democrats Told to Get a Spine"
  June 13, 2005
  Rady Ananda

"The disappearance of black police officers in Columbus, Ohio"
  June 13, 2005
  James Moss

"Ohio State Students Support Plaintiff in Case Alleging University Wrongdoing in Rape Case"
  June 8, 2005
  Jennifer A Yoder

"Ohio Preparing Law Enforcement for Increasing Non-English Speaking Communities"
  June 8, 2005
  Ohio Criminal Justice Services

"Columbus endorsement slate"
  May 3, 2005
  League of Independent Voters

"Ohioans Rally to Stop Social Security Privatization as Congress Begins to Write Privatization Plan"
  April 26, 2005
  Tom Powell-Bullock

"Columbus League of Pissed Off Voters Release Endorsement Slate for May 3 Primary"
  April 24, 2005
  Pissed Off Voters

"Kent Students Are More Than Numbers"
  March 21, 2005
  Charles E. Campbell

"Higher Education Funding Cuts Hurt Ohio's Future"
  March 15, 2005
  Lisa K. Zellner

"Boy Scouts of America's Simon Kenton Council Attempts to mislead United Way of Central Ohio to get funding"
  January 29, 2005
  Beacon Fellowship Columbus

Related Journal articles:

"Rally by hate group spurs insurrection in Toledo, Ohio"
  November 15, 2005

"Coup d'tat in Ohio? "
  November 15, 2005

"LPFM comes to Columbus! An Open Letter to the Central Ohio Community from Simply Living"
  November 15, 2005

"CAIR-OHIO The Council on American-Islamic Relations "
  November 15, 2005

"Flip's fundamentalist jihad"
  September 8, 2005

"In Memoriam: Bill Moss (1935-2005)"
  September 8, 2005

"Columbus Not In Our Name branch sets stage for historic September DC protest "
  September 8, 2005

"FEATURED ORGANIZATION - The Native American Indian Center of Central Ohio "
  September 8, 2005

"An evening with Rod Parsley"
  July 20, 2005

"FEATURED ORGANIZATION - Central Ohioans for Peace"
  July 20, 2005

"Red Bird books to prisoners"
  March 21, 2005

"Government of the corporations, by the corporations, and for the corporations"
  March 21, 2005

"Ohio’s new campus brownshirts"
  March 21, 2005

"Professionalism in Ohio’s prison system"
  January 23, 2005




Read Articles by Year:
2007 2006 2005 2004
2003 2002 2001 2000




All content © 1970-2008
The Columbus Free Press
Disclaimer