CU’s absurd attempt at conservative tokenism
Thursday, May 15, 2008Written by: Uncle Charley
The news this week that the
CU political science professor emeritus Ed Rozek recently bought an ad in the Daily Camera in which he tallied voter registration records of faculty and administrators.
Rozek’s finding: Of 825 faculty members in arts and sciences, business, education, journalism and law, he found only 23 registered Republicans.
Rozek did not break out the number of registered Democrats or independents.
Still, Rozek said he found the idea of an endowed chair in conservative views “humorous” and said it smacks of tokenism.
“What is needed is pluralism of ideas, meaning no political party has a monopoly on any campus,” Rozek said. “All views - socialism, communism, democracy - should be discussed.”
Rozek said he would prefer 10 visiting scholars from the world’s leading institutions of higher learning coming to teach at Boulder every year.
Seemingly unlike many who post on this site, I long have inhabited the “conservative” world of thought and action. Nevertheless, I agree with the emeritus professor that this CU proposal is a well-meaning but absurd attempt at tokenism. I almost feel a little self-conscious even writing about this topic. But when you scan the reader comments below the Rocky Mountain News story, you get the sense that this issue has generated far more heat than light.
You can hardly find agreement on a definition of “conservative” thought, much less try to force it into a pre-packaged box. Does the university need more economists who prefer capitalism to Keynesianism? More historians unhampered by politically correct notions that subdivide every layer of history based on race, class, and gender? Humanities teachers who can take an authentic, rather than condescending, look at Judeo-Christian ideas, values, and contributions?
Do they want a devotee of Austrian economics? A disciple of Edmund Burke and Russell Kirk? A Straussian political scientist or a proponent one of the neo-conservative offshoots? An Ayn Randian Objectivist? A Catholic Acton Institute scholar? Maybe they could find a formula for balancing the different strains in the annual rotation.
And what is the university trying to accomplish anyway? To make conservatism into a museum exhibit? (“Here, class, is the species known as conservatus Americanus, an unenlightened relic of a bygone era….”)
While I doubt that’s the general intention, it’s more likely to be the actual result. My guess is that many in the university are trying to inoculate themselves against charges raised by the Ward Churchill and other controversies that have fed the largely well-earned stereotype as the People’s Republic of
Yes, CU is trying, however meekly, to take a stab at improving intellectual diversity on campus. But a real solution would be far more intricate and complicated, I imagine. When and whether it’s achievable or worthy of trying to achieve are questions larger than I’m willing to answer.
The news this week that the
May 15th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Here here.
Also, given the appointment earlier of Hank Brown at the Boulder political science department as the Quigg and Virginia S. Newton Endowed Chair, and now this attempt to recruit Condi Rice or George Will, it would appear the CU powers that be are more interested in Republican political credentials than in true conservative scholarship.
Imagine if Pepperdine or George Mason Univ set aside an endowed chair for ‘progressive thought’. The Bill O’Reillys of the world would have a field day. CU’s Chancellor tried to explain that this isn’t really about setting aside a position (sounds like a quota, no?) for another Republican, “We want scholars grounded in the writings of John Locke, Thomas Hobbes and Alexander Hamilton . . . people who can talk about those early works that formed a basis for the country.” Is he really saying that nobody at CU Boulder currently has that expertise? If so, it’s surely the only research university in the nation that can stake such a claim.
Again, as Uncle Charley says: absurd.
May 16th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
It may be that this could properly be handled through an internal CU choice mechanism. Let students decide if they want to earn a traditional Liberal Arts BA or a new Conservative Arts BA. They can choose courses, faculty, and their final degree name accordingly.
