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CHE profiles ACTA president Anne Neal
Don't miss The Chronicle of Higher Education's in-depth profile of ACTA president Anne Neal, written by Robin Wilson. Wilson reviews the debates that have swirled around ACTA since its founding, with particular focus on what ACTA's mission is, how it differs from those of other academic watchdog groups, and how Neal's work with ACTA has been received by a range of figures from the academic establishment.
An excerpt:
Her 11-year-old group, based in Washington, counts trustees and alumni as its chief constituents. But Ms. Neal has become a self-styled watchdog of the professoriate, criticizing faculty members for taking advantage of their academic freedom by offering what the council sees as ideologically tinged courses on race and gender. And while she has slammed colleges for failing to curb grade inflation and for keeping military recruiters off campus, she has called a lack of intellectual diversity the "most serious challenge for higher education today."Still, at the council's annual meeting she brushed off the obvious question: What was a woman like her doing in a place like this?
Ms. Neal was quick to point out that ACTA is "not a protest group." Given the tug of war between professors and Mr. Summers, she said, Harvard was a natural place to meet. "There are many good things about higher education," she told the 100 or so people gathered at the Faculty Club. "But it is complacent and in need of reform."
Tempering her criticism with compliments has helped earn Ms. Neal wary recognition from some in higher education. Michael Berube, a professor of English on Pennsylvania State University's main campus and a well-known liberal commentator, calls Ms. Neal a "more serious and substantial opponent of academic freedom" than most other critics.
She has worked her way into the national debate--testifying before the Senate Finance Committee, contributing to the deliberations of the federal Commission on the Future of Higher Education, and writing about academic freedom for the journal of the Association of American Colleges and Universities.
"Anne Neal is a legitimate player," says Gordon G. Brittan Jr., a philosophy professor at Montana State University at Bozeman who invited her to the campus last March to speak during a forum on academic freedom. "There is a concern about what's going on in the classroom, and Anne is expressing what a number of parents who are increasingly shouldering college bills are worried about."
But make no mistake, says Roger W. Bowen, general secretary of the American Association of University Professors: Ms. Neal is dangerous. "Anne is on a mission from God to remake the academy in the image of conservative values," he says. "She is part of a larger, national campaign to take over higher education and influence its agenda. If you're conservative, you say, 'We've got the White House. We've got the courts. We've got Congress. What we don't have is higher education, and if we want to control the country, that's where we have to implant ourselves.'"
Neal counters characterizations such as Bowen's handily, with a frank recognition that for critics such as Bowen, "conservative" is a dirty and ultimately dismissive word; ACTA is "bipartisan," she notes, adding that ACTA's mission is far removed from the sort of lobbying Bowen insinuates lies at its heart: "ACTA does not as a general matter look to the federal government as an answer to the problems we're addressing." Neal counters claims that a non-academic such as herself has no business getting involved in academic politics with similar frankness. "There's a traditional concept that anyone who's not in the academy should just leave well enough alone," she says. "But that kind of a response underscores the insularity of those inside the academy, which is part of the issue we're trying to address."
There's much more worth reading in this piece, which not only clarifies the work of ACTA, but also offers a rare window into who its leader is--as a professional and as a human being.
Posted by acta online at November 6, 2006 08:14 AM
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But make no mistake, says Roger W. Bowen, general secretary of the American Association of University Professors: Ms. Neal is dangerous. "Anne is on a mission from God to remake the academy in the image of conservative values," ... "She is part of a larger, national campaign to take over higher education and influence its agenda. If you're conservative, you say, 'We've got the White House. We've got the courts. We've got Congress. What we don't have is higher education, and if we want to control the country, that's where we have to implant ourselves.'"
Why should we bother to reply to Kautsky? He would reply to us and we would have to reply to his reply. There is no end to that. It is enough to announce that Kautsky is a traitor to the working class and everyone will understand everything.
Posted by: Art Deco at November 6, 2006 06:30 PM
"if we want to control the country, that's where we have to implant ourselves.'"
Bowen shows a jaw-dropping lack of self-awareness. This is precisely the logic I've always seen advanced to justify replacing education with leftist political indoctrination (and excluding anyone who is right of center from faculty positions).
Posted by: Federal Dog at November 7, 2006 07:08 AM