David McGrath
Columnist EducationNews.org

       While we read how Illinois Governor Blagojevich allegedly tried to stop negative stories about him in the Chicago Tribune,  the college where I taught for 15 years wants to stop me from writing this column.

     College of DuPage, the largest community college in Illinois, is preparing to adopt a new policy manual that gives its board of trustees more control over curriculum, over which guest speakers departments may invite, over what student journalists write  in the Courier, the school newspaper, and over what its employees do and say on their own time, such as my doing freelance work for newspapers.

     Colleges,  like businesses in the private sector, have always reserved reasonable say-so over employee activities while on company time.

     But C.O.D., of the  traditionally  conservative  DuPage County, has lately bought  into  right wing blogger and activist David Horowitz's ironically named movement, Academic Bill of Rights (A.B.O.R.), an initiative which has been rejected by most universities and by the American Association of University professors as "governmental intrusion into higher education and shared governance," and in this case, intrusion into teachers' private lives.

     C.O.D. Board Chairman Michael McKinnon and his colleagues apparently wish to seize control of classrooms and professors, the majority of whom are "anti American left," according to Horowitz.  And A.B.O.R.'s  recommendations for managing the content of teachers' lessons are included in the trustees' proposal under the heading of "Educational Policy."

     Horowitz and company are ecstatic over developments at C.O.D., as manifested in this latest entry on their website, Frontpage.com: "We at the Freedom Center are enormously proud of our work in inspiring a dialogue about the need to free college education from the iron grasp of ideology and indoctrination.  And we admire the courage of the DuPage Trustees in standing up for the rights of their students.  As for the Academic Bill of Rights, we hope that it will continue to be the gift that keeps on giving."

     All of which, to some people, is not a bad thing.  It's likely true that conservatives are underrepresented on college and university faculties, as men and women pursuing the academic field tend to be politically liberal.  A.B.O.R. calls  for more balance.

     Nor would it be the end of the world if C.O.D.'s new prohibition against outside employment for faculty, would prevent me personally from publishing op-eds in newspapers as well as in Education News.   No Pulitizer Prizes are in danger of going unclaimed, if I'm silenced.

      What's more worrisome is the chilling effect that the school's new policy will have on free exchange of ideas in the classroom.  A geography professor might worry that inviting former Vice President Al Gore  to speak to his students about global warming, might constitute a violation of board policy restricting political activity.  Same with anthropology, political science , or other professors,  thinking twice about the lessons they plan, the texts they choose, the films they show, and the questions they pose to their students.

     And what's worse is that McKinnon and the other trustees in lockstep, seek to take editorial control of the school newspaper and eliminate students' rights to free speech and a free press   both vital necessities in democratic education and its mission to search for truth.

     A  appreciation of this tragic possibility was  poetically manifested by over 50 C.O.D. students, who filed into the November board meeting, with duct tape covering their mouths.

     Compared to the weightier concerns of academic freedom and educational quality at C.O.D.,  my own status becomes only marginally relevant, especially since I retired from full time teaching and remain only as an "emeritus" professor, for which I am compensated with a school email account,  full library and workout center privileges, and a  single annual check to subsidize my health care. 

    I would give it all up, of course,  if keeping it would mean  I could no longer moonlight as a freelance columnist.   Admittedly, it would hurt  to lose the C.O.D. title which I like to affix to the shirttail of each column.   So until and unless board members vote  to adopt  the new policy in January,   I'll continue signing off in the same way.