"Support our Troops" stickers ordered removed
At the University of Oregon, a worker was recently ordered by school officials to remove a magnetic "Support Our Troops" sticker from a university-owned maintenance vehicle.
The university's official stance is that the sticker violates state regulations prohibiting political materials from being displayed on state property. One wonders whether a similar standard will soon be applied to university professors' doors, which are often covered in political cartoons and bumper stickers.
Posted by Evan Coyne Maloney
29 Jan 2005 @ 10:52am
Columbia Unbecoming
Over the last few months, Columbia University has attempted to contain a public relations disaster stemming from the film Columbia Unbecoming. The film presents a number of students who tell of bias in the classrooms of several Middle East Studies professors.
One Israeli student, for example, tells of a professor who repeatedly asked him in class, "How many Palestinians have you killed?" After the student objected, the professor refused to allow the student to speak in class.
Columbia Unbecoming, which has been getting lots of press in New York City, now has its own website.
Posted by Evan Coyne Maloney
25 Jan 2005 @ 11:08am
New York Sun profiles Evan Coyne Maloney
Today's issue of The New York Sun contains an in-depth profile of Brainwashing 101 director Evan Coyne Maloney.
Update: The New York Sun profile is now available only in their premium archive. However, the same article is still available from Front Page Magazine.
Posted by webmaster
21 Jan 2005 @ 11:09pm
Harvard head in hot water
Former Clinton Administration official and current Harvard President Larry Summers is feeling the heat after making some impolitic comments regarding scientific research of gender differences. From the Associated Press:
Lawrence Summers' bluntness has earned him both enemies and admirers in several top Treasury Department jobs and now as president of Harvard.
He's rarely been one to apologize for his directness -- until this week. Summers has spent much of the last few days saying sorry following a tumult over comments he made at a conference on women in science that he thought were off the record.
Summers insists his remarks about possible biological differences in scientific ability between men and women have been misrepresented -- that he wasn't endorsing a position, just stating there is research that suggests such a difference may exist. But his words have sparked wide discussion on Harvard's campus and a string of angry calls and e-mails.
In a letter to the Harvard community posted late Wednesday on the university Web site, Summers wrote: "I deeply regret the impact of my comments and apologize for not having weighed them more carefully."
"I was wrong to have spoken in a way that was an unintended signal of discouragement to talented girls and women," he added in what was his third statement expressing contrition since the conference last Friday.
Summers, an economist by training, said in a telephone interview that he hopes he'll be able to participate in academic discussions in the future. "But particularly on sensitive topics, I will speak in much less spontaneous ways and in ways that are much more mindful of my position as president," he said.
Some academics think that's too bad. They say it's important for college presidents to be engaged in debating important issues, and worry this episode will discourage them.
Read more...
Posted by webmaster
20 Jan 2005 @ 11:23pm
School bans Passion of the Christ
Indian River Community College in Fort Pierce, Florida recently censored a Christian student group that wanted to show The Passion of the Christ. According to the Christian Student Fellowship, school administrator Lori LaCivita said the reason for banning the film was because of its "R" rating. But the same school hosted a play called "Fucking for Jesus" in which a character masturbates to images of Christ. Apparently, the college felt no need to censor that.
Posted by Evan Coyne Maloney
14 Jan 2005 @ 3:54pm
Would you like to be in our film?
If you are a current college student on any American campus, you can help fight political indoctrination in the classroom while getting a chance to be in a groundbreaking documentary.
Do you have a professor who routinely takes class time to preach politics in a course that has absolutely nothing to do with politics? If so, then you may be paying to listen to political advertising. Would you like your money back?
Many of you have probably seen those local news segments where reporters go after businessmen who rip off their customers. Someone pays to have their entire house painted, but the job is left half-done. The noble reporter comes to the defense of the victimized consumer and helps secure a refund. Everybody's happy, with the obvious exception of the people perpetrating the fraud.
It's no different when it comes to education. If you're paying for three hour-long math classes every week, but your professor insists on spending 15 minutes of each class telling you about his political opinions, then you are being ripped off and you could be entitled to a partial refund of your tuition. We may be able to help.
For more information, please read the "Stop Classroom Politicking" article.
Please note that we believe strongly in academic freedom, and we will take precautions to ensure that the academic freedom of professors is not trampled upon. But as Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "With freedom comes responsibility." To talk of academic freedom without recognizing the academic responsibility of professors is to focus on only half the equation. Professors have tremendous power within the classroom, and responsible professors exercise that power without injecting their political views in ways that are not germane to the course material. If political science professors dispassionately discuss their political views in class, we don't have a problem with that. Unfortunately, there are many cases where professors abuse their freedom to the detriment of their students, and that's what we'd like to address.
Posted by Evan Coyne Maloney
12 Jan 2005 @ 10:32pm
Psychotherapy for Pro-US Muslim Student?
Like many 17-year-olds, Ahmad Al-Qloushi is adjusting to life on campus. As an Arab Muslim, the Foothill College freshman is undoubtedly a minority. He's also finding that his status as a minority brings with it a unique set of challenges. But it isn't Ahmad's ethnicity or his religion that are the source of tension on campus, it's his views about the United States. You see, Ahmad is a Kuwaiti. And although he was only three years old when the U.S. liberated his country from the claws of Saddam Hussein, his admiration for our country is something he inherited from his parents' generation:
My parents still remember what it was like for us during the invasion. Waiting for long hours in line for a few pieces of bread. We had darkness 24 hours a day from the burning oil wells. My two uncles are still traumatized from being kidnapped and tortured in Iraqi prisons. Most of all we remember our one-week-old baby cousin who died while the Iraqi invaders were stealing incubators from hospitals to sell them for profit. The Americans by contrast came in to liberate us and asked for nothing in return. I love this country for the freedom it provides and for rescuing Kuwait's liberty in the first Gulf War.
It is his love for our country that's the source of Ahmad's troubles at Foothill College. Since the late 1960s, admiration for the United States has fallen out of fashion on American campuses. Foothill is no different:
Week after week, I encountered a lack of intellectual and political diversity that I would have more commonly expected to have heard on the streets of pre-liberation Iraq. In this particular class I heard only one consistent refrain: America is bad.
When Ahmad disagreed with that prevailing sentiment, political science professor Joseph Woolcock suggested that Ahmad needed psychological help:
[Professor Woolcock] told me, "Your views are irrational." He called me naive for believing in the greatness of this country, and told me "America is not God's gift to the world." Then he upped the stakes and said "You need regular psychotherapy." Apparently, if you are an Arab Muslim who loves America you must be deranged. Professor Woolcock went as far as to threaten me by stating that he would visit the Dean of International Admissions (who has the power to take away student visas) to make sure I received regular psychological treatment.
This is what passes for an education these days.
Posted by Evan Coyne Maloney
11 Jan 2005 @ 10:06pm
Campus life, fully exposed
U.S. News and World Report columnist John Leo discusses his daughter's experience at Wesleyan:
In the fall of 2000, I promised my daughter the freshman that I wouldn't write about Wesleyan University (Middletown, Conn.) until she graduated. As a result, you readers learned nothing from me about the naked dorm, the transgender dorm, the queer prom, the pornography-for-credit course, the obscene sidewalk chalking, the campus club named crudely for a woman's private part, or the appearance on campus of a traveling anti-Semitic roadshow, loosely described as a pro-Palestinian conference.
Posted by Evan Coyne Maloney
11 Jan 2005 @ 8:29pm
BW101 in "10 Best Documentaries of 2004"!
As the world rang in 2005, the Liberty Film Festival released its picks for the 10 Best Documentary Films of 2004. We're flattered to announce that Brainwashing 101 was selected in the top 10!
On October 3rd, Brainwashing 101 received a standing ovation after being screened at the Los Angeles-based Liberty Film Festival.
To read the previous buzz about Brainwashing 101, go here.
Posted by webmaster
11 Jan 2005 @ 2:01pm
Our New Blog
We've added a blog!
There's a lot of news to cover in the world of political correctness. As the spring semester heats up, check back here periodically for the latest outrages on our nation's campuses.
We'll also keep you up-to-date on the progress of Indoctrinate U, the feature-length version of our film Brainwashing 101, which is expected to be ready for release in 2006.
Posted by webmaster
11 Jan 2005 @ 11:31am
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