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A rare real debate
Harvard has distinguished itself recently for its willingness to elevate the quality of campus discourse about the Solomon Amendment by staging a genuine public debate between two constitutional experts who stand on opposing sides in Rumsfeld v FAIR. Berkeley, too, did something equally good last week, with an equally tough issue: affirmative action. Over 500 people turned out to hear conservative black activist Mason Weaver debate Shanta Driver, national spokesperson for BAMN (By Any Means Necessary), on the merits and demerits of race-based affirmative action. Co-sponsored by the Berkeley College Republicans and the campus chapter of BAMN, the event marked the sort of impassioned, informed exchange that college campuses ought to be all about. Weaver defended Proposition 209, which forbids public California schools to consider race in hiring or admissions, and spoke of affirmative action as part of America's new bureaucratic "plantation system," while Driver argued that affirmative action is necessary to combat "institutionalized racism." Weaver argued that affirmative action is a type of racism; Driver argued that it is an important guarantor of opportunity; an audience member called Weaver a "shameless opportunist"; Weaver declared his belief that public education should be dismantled. Discussion was heated because the issue matters to people, and the audience was appreciative of the effort the College Republicans and BAMN had gone to to offer a forum where opposing views about the issue could be thoroughly aired and tested. As one freshman put it, "I think it was a productive event ... It gave students a good foundation."
More schools should do what Harvard and Berkeley are doing. It's intellectually responsible, and it shows a depressingly rare faith in the ability of students to evaluate arguments, consider complex issues, and make up their own minds about what their personal positions on those issues will be.
Posted by acta online at October 25, 2005 10:28 AM
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Comments
It is critical that such debates are not only conducted, but also actively promoted and recognized. Thankfully, in addition to the great work of ACTA, publishers such as the Intercollegiate Studies Institute are printing guides such as the best-selling "Choosing the Right College: The Whole Truth About America's Top Schools," which presents an independent and candid assessment of the curricula, political atmosphere, and campus life at American universities. ISI and the ACTA are in accord on the value of a core curriculum that leaves students both well versed in Western culture and the history of ideas, and possessing the ability to think critically.
The past thirty years have been marked by the virulent spread of "theory" (defined as the systematic deconstruction and dismissal of any strongly held value system or hallowed field of knowledge) on college campuses, and the accompanying decline in the health of our once-great academic institutions. Ironically, the same pervasive "anything goes" liberalism that has resulted in college courses on pornography has shunted debate on any subject deemed impermissible or not conforming to the liberal canon. The blatant hypocrisy of those who arrogantly ridicule others whom they describe as "close minded religionists" or "ignorant traditionalists" is evident in the tsunami of backlash inundating Larry Summers at Harvard University when he "dared" introduce a view (not even his!) on the role of gender in a discussion on the demographic distribution of students in various fields of study. Highly educated professors responded like persnickety socialites confronted with an impropriety at a tea party: they fled the room in a self-righteous huff. This is the state of debate in our institutions of higher learning??
I hope the success of ISI's college guide and the existence of the ACTA are evidence of a sea change in our country's view of higher education and the importance of informed debate. With the rapid increase in foreign competition for our jobs, it has never been more crucial that students appreciate and understand the value system that has served as the ground from which America has vaulted to its position of prominence in the world.
Posted by: Christopher Hackel at October 29, 2005 03:25 PM