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Poliakoff on an ultra-political professoriate: 'Here they go again.'
ACTA's own Dr. Michael Poliakoff, vice president of policy, spoke out against more news of faculty reluctance to use financial gifts in the way outlined by the donor.
Here they go again. The faculty at Whitman are up in arms, deeply concerned that people they don't like are giving money to enrich the lives of students at their college. Princeton's Andrew Ross expressed a view all-too-common among faculty when he said that he wanted "direct access to the minds of the children of the ruling class." And, all too often, such mentors don't want viewpoints that might prompt debate or a real exchange of ideas.Philanthropists like the Kochs refuse to accept such a status quo and offer programs that regularly challenge the orthodoxies of the professoriate -- with topnotch speakers and new perspectives. They address the lack of intellectual diversity that, sadly, some faculty find congenial. Until the faculty put their own prejudices aside and put students first, they have no cause for complaint against philanthropists who give of their own resources to create the academic dialogue that is the birthright of the academy. Should the Koch Foundation ask for student emails as they did? Perhaps not. But that's a problem that Whitman College can readily fix without straight-arming the academic opportunities that the Kochs offer.
Posted by dburnett on November 23, 2011 at November 23, 2011 01:41 PM
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