Wednesday, January 31, 2007
House subcommittee tables bill aimed at 'intellectual diversity'
House Bill 1643 would have required public colleges to file reports on their policies.
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roanoke.com/politics
RICHMOND -- A House education subcommittee voted 5-3 Tuesday to table a bill designed to measure political thought at Virginia's public colleges.
The vote all but kills House Bill 1643, which would have required public colleges to file reports on their policies to "ensure academic freedom in support of intellectual diversity."
The bill seemed to stall largely because of its use of the phrase "intellectual diversity." That term was popularized by conservative activist David Horowitz in his "Academic Bill of Rights," which was published with the intent to largely eliminate perceived political bias and indoctrination of students by radicals in academe.
HB 1643's sponsor, Del. Steve Landes, R-Augusta County, said that before filing the bill he had not read Horowitz's writings, but that his intent was largely the same.
"There are problems in other states dealing with making sure there's a balance of thought, making sure both sides of viewpoints are heard," Landes said.
The reports would not only collect all the policies in one place, Landes said, but also make the information public for parents, students and other interested parties.
Jarrett Ray, a junior majoring in political science at a public college, said he'd encountered problems during his freshmen year. Ray said he'd been unfairly graded on some papers by an adjunct professor because he espoused a conservative view.
Eventually, Ray said, his grade was changed for the better, and the offending professor was fired for other reasons the next semester. Still, he said, passage of the bill would make life easier for incoming students.
"There is definite cause for this," Ray said. "It's not rampant by any means ... but for freshmen this is something that needs to happen."
But Peter Moody, a graduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University, disagreed.
"I'm concerned this bill is aiming to create an issue instead of solving one," Moody said.
Dan LaVista, executive director for the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, the state agency that would receive the college's reports under HB 1643, said that while he was grateful for the bill's dedication to academic freedom, he was wary of its reference to "intellectual diversity."
The former, LaVista said, is a principle that's been discussed and defined since the 1940s, while the latter is a murkier term that's only emerged in the last few years.
