The very mention of the word makes many professors shudder, but
politics, especially on UCLA’s largely liberal campus,
continues to be one of the most controversial topics professors and
students deal with.
“The university teaches you how to think about issues and
problems, and it’s very hard to separate your normative
theories from your positive theories,” said political science
Professor James Honaker.
Since the 1960s, universities have been known sites of political
activism, but today some are concerned that faculty and students
are taking inappropriate stands on issues like the war in Iraq.
Last week, an assembled group of some 200 UCLA faculty members
out of 3,300 eligible to vote passed a resolution against the war
in Iraq, condemning the U.S. invasion of Iraq and opposing the
“establishment of an American protectorate in
Iraq.”
“Resources being spent on that war are resources being
taken away from higher education, health care and a whole lot of
other things,” said public health Professor Richard Brown,
adding it was completely appropriate for faculty to express their
views in this case.
While they were in a minority at the meeting, some faculty
members took issue with the idea of a group of teachers taking a
political stand on behalf of the entire faculty.
“We’re forced to be members of an organization
because we either resign our tenure or they speak for us,”
said Grant Nelson, law school professor.
But Honaker said universities are generally criticized for being
“ivory towers” ““ or being disconnected from the
rest of the world ““ whereas UCLA gets itself involved in the
world when it takes a stand on issues like the war in Iraq.
“That educators and the intellectual talent at a
university care about what’s going on in the world is a
strong thing,” he said.
Still, some students are concerned that the passing of the
resolution will affect UCLA’s national reputation.
“There’s really no student voice in the body and
they’re representing UCLA as an institution,” said
fifth-year European studies student Owen Paun, after the resolution
passed.
Members of the Bruin Republicans called the resolution an
“embarrassment to UCLA” upon hearing the vote
outcome.
But Nelson, who spoke against the resolution at the meeting,
thinks that the effects of this political stand will be much closer
to home.
“I think the major effect here is not our national
reputation. The question is how individual faculty on this campus
view faculty governance. That’s a narrower, more local
question,” Nelson said.
Nelson said the resolution reflected UCLA faculty’s desire
to “institutionalize (their) private political views”
through the “machinery of the faculty senate,” a notion
he rejects.
While Nelson himself is tenured, he fears that young, untenured
faculty will feel pressure to adhere to the “official
position” of the senate, since personnel decisions are often
tied to the Academic Senate.
He also acknowledges all faculty are biased and that their
opinions will occasionally find their way into teaching, but also
is afraid tenured faculty will feed off the political backing of
the senate and use their classrooms for indoctrination
purposes.
“I don’t think it’s relevant anymore whether I
should bring in to my classroom my religious or a whole variety of
political beliefs,” Nelson said.
Students generally accept that many faculty are politically
biased, but differ on how they think they should express it.
“(Faculty) can’t help themselves, but they should
try and be as un-opinionated as possible,” said fourth-year
sociology student Dalton Susselman.
Susselman added that one social welfare professor forced him and
others in the class to help the Democratic Party during the
election, a requirement some students were upset with.
Jennie Allen, a fourth-year political science and communications
student, said it is absolutely acceptable for faculty to have their
own political biases, but it is crucial that they keep them out in
the open so as not to affect their teachings.
“When it comes down to it, they’re people and
they’re in a work setting,” Allen said.
“Hopefully student views are counterbalancing that. If
not, maybe they need to be exposed to these views,” she
said.
At least one student is sure of where he stands on the
issue.
“They can do whatever they want because I don’t
listen to what they say,” said Vu Huyn, third-year business
economics student.
“If they push it in a way that directly affects me,
there’s a problem, but it’s a free country,” he
added.