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Horowitz Joins Santorum, Pipes At Union League Event
  
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Battle For Academic Freedom
By Bradley Vasoli, The Bulletin
Philadelphia — David Horowitz just published his fourth book on anti-intellectualism in academia.
It’s an ongoing interest because he deems it an ongoing problem.
Appearing yesterday at a Union League luncheon sponsored by his David Horowitz Freedom Center and the Morton McMichael Society, Mr. Horowitz said conservatives are “fighting a battle for our country on the campuses.”
His adversaries include teachers of a course at the University of California-Santa Cruz on “how to organize a [anti-capitalist] revolution” and Temple University’s African American Studies Department which applies “Afrocentrism” to cultural studies.
Mr. Horowitz, himself a former leftist who once edited the now-defunct radical magazine Ramparts, said, however, that radically leftist professors and administrators in American universities sometimes overreach in ways that threaten their dominance. He cited the example of Ward Churchill, the dismissed University of Colorado-Boulder professor of ethnic studies who wrote that 9/11 victims deserved their fate.
“Ward Churchill has been a tremendous boon to us,” Mr. Horowitz said, noting the critical attention universities received as a result of the professor’s audacity.
Still, he said, the only universities to have adopted versions of his Academic Bill of Rights are Temple and Pennsylvania State University. The policy favors a variety of scholarly viewpoints in the classroom. The board of trustees and the faculty association at Illinois’ College of DuPage are currently debating whether to enact it.
In an effort to explain the topic of leftist academic bias to the reading public, Mr. Horowitz published his book “One-Party Classroom” last month. A forthcoming book will recount his adventures traversing the United States attempting to loosen restraints on free speech and diversity of thought on college campuses.
Remarks by former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum and Middle East Forum Director Daniel Pipes preceded Mr. Horowitz’s speech. Mr. Santorum urged a political shift in conservative thinking from electoral politics to cultural and academic concerns.
“Politics is downstream from culture,” he said.
The former senator has recently begun urging conservatives to make winning the “culture war” a priority equal in importance to winning political campaigns. As such, he has urged members of the center-right to not only become politicians, but also authors, filmmakers, artists and professors.
He offered a suggestion to alumni of politically one-sided campuses: Don’t donate to them. He added that he does not donate to his alma mater Penn State.
“You are enabling the left,” he said of those conservatives who still give to their liberal former campuses. “You are not only wasting your money, you are hurting America…. The universities are not going to get the message if you keep writing the check.”
Yesterday’s speakers did hold out some hope that their vision for America’s campuses would one day be realized. If it is, Dr. Pipes said, Mr. Horowitz will get much of the credit.
“David’s legacy as a fighter and as a patriot is assured,” he said.
Bradley Vasoli can be reached at bvasoli@thebulletin.us
It’s an ongoing interest because he deems it an ongoing problem.
Appearing yesterday at a Union League luncheon sponsored by his David Horowitz Freedom Center and the Morton McMichael Society, Mr. Horowitz said conservatives are “fighting a battle for our country on the campuses.”
His adversaries include teachers of a course at the University of California-Santa Cruz on “how to organize a [anti-capitalist] revolution” and Temple University’s African American Studies Department which applies “Afrocentrism” to cultural studies.
Mr. Horowitz, himself a former leftist who once edited the now-defunct radical magazine Ramparts, said, however, that radically leftist professors and administrators in American universities sometimes overreach in ways that threaten their dominance. He cited the example of Ward Churchill, the dismissed University of Colorado-Boulder professor of ethnic studies who wrote that 9/11 victims deserved their fate.
“Ward Churchill has been a tremendous boon to us,” Mr. Horowitz said, noting the critical attention universities received as a result of the professor’s audacity.
Still, he said, the only universities to have adopted versions of his Academic Bill of Rights are Temple and Pennsylvania State University. The policy favors a variety of scholarly viewpoints in the classroom. The board of trustees and the faculty association at Illinois’ College of DuPage are currently debating whether to enact it.
In an effort to explain the topic of leftist academic bias to the reading public, Mr. Horowitz published his book “One-Party Classroom” last month. A forthcoming book will recount his adventures traversing the United States attempting to loosen restraints on free speech and diversity of thought on college campuses.
Remarks by former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum and Middle East Forum Director Daniel Pipes preceded Mr. Horowitz’s speech. Mr. Santorum urged a political shift in conservative thinking from electoral politics to cultural and academic concerns.
“Politics is downstream from culture,” he said.
The former senator has recently begun urging conservatives to make winning the “culture war” a priority equal in importance to winning political campaigns. As such, he has urged members of the center-right to not only become politicians, but also authors, filmmakers, artists and professors.
He offered a suggestion to alumni of politically one-sided campuses: Don’t donate to them. He added that he does not donate to his alma mater Penn State.
“You are enabling the left,” he said of those conservatives who still give to their liberal former campuses. “You are not only wasting your money, you are hurting America…. The universities are not going to get the message if you keep writing the check.”
Yesterday’s speakers did hold out some hope that their vision for America’s campuses would one day be realized. If it is, Dr. Pipes said, Mr. Horowitz will get much of the credit.
“David’s legacy as a fighter and as a patriot is assured,” he said.
Bradley Vasoli can be reached at bvasoli@thebulletin.us
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