NYCLU says academic freedom is only for the professoriat, not the student body

village voice > news > Liberty Beat by Nat Hentoff :
"The New York Civil Liberties Union has blundered into the growing controversy at Columbia University about charges by students in Middle East studies (MEALAC) that they are bullied and silenced in classrooms by certain professors who are vehemently anti-Israel. Professors have the right to compare Sharon with Goebbels or to declare Israel not to be a legitimate state—but do dissenting students have no academic freedom to question those professorial views in class? The NYCLU says that's up to the professor."

Nat Hentoff is one of those essential men. He calls the plays based on the rulebook, not on whose team is winning. Here he delves into the growing controversy at Columbia University's Mideast studies department and defends the right of students to dissent from professorial views in class.

There's enough pressure on students to keep their mouths shut to protect their grades without giving professors a formal carte blanche to shut down dissent from their political posturings in the classroom. After all, the students (or their parents or the government on their behalf) are paying the bills; so, they ought to be entitled to some say in the content of the classroom discussion.

I have read that many years ago the great German universities were organized on a very different principle. The faculty admitted a doctoral candidate as a recognized peer and that gave him the license to teach there, but it didn't guarantee him an income. Students paid for the professor and class they wanted and the professor leased the lecture hall from the university. If an arrogant fool wanted to treat the students like dirt, he'd better be damned entertaining while he was at it or he would starve. A system like that might help our universities.