The ideology behind proposing an academic bill of rights, by which professors would be required to treat the political and personal views of students from a non-biased standpoint, is a well thought-out idea but will have little practical value.
The idea behind the proposal, sponsored by the group Students for Academic Freedom last summer to promote treating conservative students as fairly as their more numerous liberal counterparts, made its way into the U.S. House of Representatives and has been opposed by organizations like the American Association of University Professors.
The Association says that such mechanisms to protect students are “already in place and work well” and that the measures only seek to “impose administrative and legislative oversight on the professional judgment of faculty.”
And they are right.
Universities across the country already require professors to grade students based on the logic of the arguments they present—whether in a written essay or during a class discussion—and not based on a student’s personal or political views.
Professors should not be banned from expressing their personal views, and the conservative student group seeking the legislation is only providing, as one professor put it, “a solution in search of a problem.”
Students are capable of handling a professor’s bias more easily when it is made blatantly obvious, rather than hidden. Boston University students in particular have an advantage over students who attend smaller schools because they have the option of choosing from a number of professors who teach the same course, and students often can switch into another section if they dislike a certain professor’s attitude.
The measure is also only trying to raise sympathy for right-wingers, rather than promote fairness among all students. Even though conservative students are vastly outnumbered at many schools, including BU, no liberal professor is going to turn against a conservative student if that student presents well argued, intelligent, logical points, even points that are contrary to the professor’s personal views.
A bill of rights on a general and much larger scale is now being debated in places like Europe, where most all countries have no bill of rights stating citizens have the right to free speech and other liberties, yet no sane democratic politician is going to deny any citizen such fundamental rights.
Likewise, a student does not need a written document to feel capable of going up to a professor and asking a question.
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