A RESOURCE FOR UNDERGRADUATES MAJORING IN JOURNALISM.

12.28.2005

FRIDAY 11 NOVEMBER 2005


Can Professors have political opinions?



Provost critical of bias investigation
By MARIA MASTERS
Staff Writer
November 11, 2005
A high-ranking Pitt administrator defended the University’s policy on protecting students from liberal biases yesterday at the second part of a two-day hearing on bias at state-funded schools in Pennsylvania.

Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor James V. Maher told members of the state House of Representatives select committee on academic freedom in higher education that Pitt already has a functional system to ensure intellectual freedom and diversity.

Maher began the session by giving a PowerPoint presentation on Pitt’s policies regarding informal resolution procedures. He explained that whenever a student has a complaint regarding a professor, the student begins by speaking with a faculty member, before bringing his or her complaint to the department.

One of the last resorts for students is to have a formal review — something that has never happened at Pitt for political orientation reasons, Maher said.

“If you asked [students] their rights, they would know them,” he said, adding that students are given a copy of the Student Policy in their summer orientation and taught it in freshman studies classes.
Bias hearings begin at Pitt
By BILAL MUHAMMAD
Assistant News Editor
November 10, 2005
State representatives listened to testimonies from academic experts and professors in the William Pitt Union yesterday, at the first of four hearings in Pennsylvania investigating liberal bias at state-funded universities.

About 10 state representatives are part of the House Select Committee, which is charged with determining if state-funded universities infringe on students’ academic freedom.

House Resolution 177, introduced by Rep. Gibson Armstrong, R-Lancaster, grants the committee the power to examine bias at state-funded and state-related universities.

State hearings on liberal bias set for Nov. 9 & 10


The first public hearing to investigate whether liberal bias exists among professors at Pennsylvania’s State System and state-related universities is set for Nov. 9 and 10 in the William Pitt Union ballroom.

The state House select committee on student academic freedom will accept public testimony on both days of the hearing.

The Nov. 9 agenda also features presentations by Steve Balch, president of the National Association of Scholars, and Joan Wallach Scott of American Association of University Professors. Both are to participate in question-and-answer sessions with the committee. The Nov. 9 session begins at 1 p.m.

Pitt Senior Vice Chancellor and Provost James V. Maher will address the committee and answer their questions at 9 a.m. Nov. 10.

House education committee research analyst Dustin Gingrich said three additional hearings are to be scheduled in two-month intervals in the Harrisburg, Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley areas.

The committee was formed following the House of Representatives 108-90 passage in July of House Resolution 177.
"Establishing a select committee to examine the academic atmosphere and the degree to which faculty have the opportunity to instruct and students have the opportunity to learn in an environment conducive to the pursuit of knowledge and truth at State-related and State-owned colleges and universities and community colleges in this Commonwealth."
some opinions:

posted by phadraigin at 00:10

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