Prof claims SRU exhibits gender bias
By Frank Skrip
Rocket News Editor
Issue date: 3/31/06 Section: News
|
History professor Alan Levy made several allegations directed toward SRU during his address, including a lack of academic freedom in and out of the classroom, a subjective advancement process for professors and a general decline of academic quality, due to overly politically correct professors.
"The effect of academic freedom is that people should be free to say the things they believe, students or faculty," Levy said. "Certain circumstances that have occurred in the past lead me to believe we do not have an environment that is conducive to academic freedom."
In his address, Levy gave several examples of said circumstances. In one instance, he said he believed one female professor faked her academic credentials when applying for promotion to full professor. After pointing out the "academic fraud," Levy said the female faculty member posed as a student on the Web site "RateMyProfessor.com" and posted some disparaging comments about him, going as far as to call him a misogynist.
Levy refused to comment on the name of the professor, however.
Professor Jace Condravy, director of the women's studies program at SRU, said it is difficult to give a lot of merit to Levy's comments because he has not provided any evidence to substantiate any of his accusations.
"I like to see proof before I believe anybody's accusations or claims, regardless of whether they are for or against what I have to say," Condravy said.
Levy, however, said he does not feel that the name of the individual is important, compared to the incident at hand.
SRU President Robert Smith said he does not see the situation in the same way as Levy, saying he believes SRU has a proud tradition of civil discourse and academic freedom, especially regarding issues that are important to students and faculty.
"We have not found a body of evidence to suggest any threat to academic freedom for students or faculty on this campus," Smith said.
Referring to a specific time he feels his academic freedom was infringed upon, Levy said, "When certain people publish university-funded feminist newsletters with criticisms of people like me and I'm not given equal time or an opportunity to retort, it's hard for me to justify a tradition of open civil discourse."
Several faculty members refused to comment in response to Levy's statements on gender bias. Levy said this only furthers his point that SRU does not promote non-conformity and open-mindedness.
"If people on this campus are afraid to say certain things for fear of political retribution, then that is something that needs to be addressed, and that is what I am particularly sensitive to," Levy said.
The panel with which Levy spoke was the House Select Committee on Academic Freedom. This committee was recently in the news after David Horowitz, a conservative activist who is considered a leader in the academic freedom legislation debate, spoke out in similar ways against Temple University in Philadelphia.
