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David Horowitz - Columnist

David Horowitz is a noted author, commentator and columnist. His is the founder of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture and his opinions can be found at Front Page Magazine. [go to Horowitz index]

Democratic Abuse of the Academy
Liberalism's party has taken over the universities...
[David Horowitz] 4/21/04

Last week I spent a few days in Atlanta speaking at Emory and meeting with its president, and also meeting with the Dean of Diverity at Georgia Tech, and students there. I also met with the Governor's education policy advisor to encourage his attention to the matters I am about to discuss.

One of the Georgia Tech students I met with was Ruth Malhotra, the president of the College Republicans and a public policy major who is at the center of a firestorm in the school. Ruth had to withdraw from a required public policy course after being harassed by her professor for her political views.

In the first week of classes, Ruth indiscreetly told her professor that she was going to Washington to attend the Conservative PAC conference (an event I spoke at). The professor responded, "Then you will probably fail my class." The first test in the class Ruth got an "F". Ruth is an A student at Georgia Tech, on the dean's list. The professor frequently made abusive and derogatory remarks in class directed at conservatives and Christians. These incidents climaxed during a class discussion about George Bush's health care policy. When Ruth defended the President's policy, the professor said, "You don't know what you're talking about. George Bush isn't doing anything for you. He's too busy pimping for the Christian Coalition."

Ruth withdrew from the class. At the moment she is still being required to pay for the course and has a "W" on her record. She is working to get both removed. While I was at Georgia Tech, Ruth and I met with the Diversity Dean Stephanie Roy, who was very cordial and agreed to speak to college officials about Ruth's case. I have now met with several diversity deans, all of whom have agreed that "intellectual diversity" should be part of the diversity programs.

The day I was there, the School of Public Policy held a "Globalizaiton Summit." The keynote speaker was Cynthia McKinney, who was driven out of Congress by her own party after suggesting that George Bush was behind 9/11, taking campaign funds from Muslim terrorists and failing to repudiate her father's anti-Semitic outburst during her campaign. McKinney did not appear at the globlization event as a deranged kook, but as a Cornell Professor, where she -- along with Janet Reno and Chomskyite journalist John Pilger -- are all visiting professors, care of Cornell's Bradley program.

This little moment illustrates how the universities now function as subsidiaries of the Democratic Party. By the way, McKinney's rehabilitation program (courtesy of Cornell, Georgia Tech and other schools) will succeed, and she will be returned to Congress this fall.

Lest anyone think that defeated Republicans have similar options, Congressman Bob Barr -- also from Georgia -- who lost a primary but through redistricting and thus not under the embarrassing circumstances of the McKinney defeat -- is now employed by the NRA.

The Ivan Allen school at Georgia Tech this year honored leftwing screecher Molly Ivins on its Founder's Day, an "educational" event at which she ranted against George Bush and the war in Iraq. Don't hold your breath for Georgia Tech (or any university) to honor Ann Coulter or Sean Hannity on its Founders Day where they might use the platform to expose the Democratic saboteurs of the war on terror.

Actually, the abuse of the universities likes not just in the fact that only leftists are honored by universities these days but that these events are themselves perverted into political rallies. If political figures must be invited, they should not only be reasonably diversified but they should also drop their partisan masks and give addresses appropriate to an educational occasion.

My visit to Emory was particularly satisfying. I met with President Wagner who embraced the idea of "political diversity" (his term, not mine) and committed himself to fostering a dialogue at Emory that included the diverse parts of the political spectrum.

My speech was something of an in your face response to Emory's boycott of my appearance. I had spoken at the school a year before against the protests of a political left that took revenge by attempting to prevent my return. Intense pressure was applied to the College Council, a student body which provides speakers funds. This pressure included a meeting at which five deans and administrators descended on the College Council and told them that my appearance would be "divisive" and would harm the Emory community. A college admisions officer was brought in to claim that "minority enrollment would decline" if I were allowed to speak.

This was an absurd libel that illustrated the depths to which leftist college administrators will sink to get their way. When I spoke at Brown University, as I indicated in my speech that evening, the president of Brown, Ruth Simmons was in the audience. It was only the second time in more than 250 college appearances I have made that a university president has deigned to honor me with their presence. Ruth Simmons is black.

The boycott of conservative speakers by universities is universal. Leftwing ideologues like Spike Lee and Cornell West will get $30,000 from student funds to come to universities to rant against George Bush and the war on terror, while conservatives will have to raise their own funds from private sources as the College Republicans at Emory had to do to bring me to their campus. Last year at Emory, Dennis Prager was rejected by the College Council on the grounds that they had already had a "pro-Israel" speaker at the school. This spring while the College Republicans were denied $5,000 to bring me to the school, $7,500 was provided to leftist to bring Jello Biafra, the lead singer of a failed punk band called the "Dead Kennedys."

Student funds are not the only way that leftists can bring their speakers to campus while conservative cannot. This year Emory's Ethics Center brought Elaine Brown to campus as the featured speaker for Martin Luther King Week. Elaine Brown is a former leader of the Black Panther Party who was a particularly inappropriate choice for this occasion since she hated Martin Luther King (the Panthers habitually referred to him as "Martin Luther Coon") and preached violence. King refused to appear on platforms with politicla leaders like Malcolm X because they preached violence. The Ethics Center also brought Ralph Nader this spring for $20,000.

The commencement speakers at Emory for several years have been former members of the Clinton Administration. This year the speaker will be UN official Mary Robinson, organizer of the Durban hate-fest against Jews and the United States, which was held 10 days before 9/11. The platform for this disgraceful event was drawn up in Teheran where Jews, Americans and members of the Baha'i faith were banned by government edict, and was so offensive that the United States eventually walked out of the event.

Thanks to the grit of the Emory College Republicans, however, we were able to hold our event. It was attended by 500 students and gave the campus community something to think about. CRO

This opinion piece first appeared at FrontPageMagazine.com by permission of David Horowitz.

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