A FEW SMALL WINS FOR ACADEMIC FREEDOM

Excerpt from "News from the Front" -- the newsletter of Students for Academic Freedom

San Francisco State University reversed the expulsion of student Tatiana Menaker, a Russian Jewish refugee, who had been expelled for five years after comments she made objecting to a Palestinian campus demonstration at which activists shouted "Hitler didn't finish the job." She was not granted a hearing in her own defense, but instead was immediately escorted off campus by three uniformed campus police officers. Students for Academic Freedom organized a "Tatiana Menaker Defense Committee" which succeeded in negotiating her immediate reinstatement as a student.

At Metro State (Denver) student George Culpepper was banned from the Political Science Association by its faculty advisor Oneida Meranto, along with all College Republicans. When he testified about the episode to a Senate hearing for the Academic Bill of Rights, Professor Meranto publicly attacked him in the Denver Post, claiming that his testimony was sour grapes because he was failing her class. In fact, Culpepper was earning a B+ in her course until he voluntarily dropped it because of her bias. In making this false statement to the press, Meranto violated the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA), which forbids teachers from discussing their students' grades and educational progress publicly. SAF took up Culpepper's defense, bringing widespread media attention and Meranto's resignation as faculty advisor to the student Political Science Association.

At Georgia Tech, Ruth Malharto, a public policy major was told by her public policy professor that she would fail her course hecause she went to a conservative conference in Washington. SAF notified the dean of diversity at Georgia Tech, congressman Jack Kingston and the office of Governor Sonny Perdue. All three intervened in behalf of the student who was allowed to withdraw from the course without penalty.

At Roger Williams University, located in Rhode Island, SAF helped to expose and document a clear-cut case of censorship. The president and administration of the school froze the funding of a conservative student publication, The Hawk's Right Eye, and publicly castigated the paper's editors for their viewpoints after the newspaper printed articles criticizing the lack of intellectual diversity among university-sponsored speakers this fall. Following a public outcry, the funding was unfrozen.

At Indiana University, Bloomington, Students for Academic Freedom launched an investigation into a Workplace Safety course which had been turned into a propaganda class against the United States and Israel and their efforts in the War On Terror. SAF students on campus spearheaded a movement joined by the Indiana Association of Scholars and faculty members on campus, to expose the misleading course description and ask the administration to make changes. The course has been completely revamped and the instructor reassigned.

At DePauw University in Indiana, Students for Academic Freedom supported College Republicans who were attacked by Director of Multicultural Affairs Jeanette Johnson-Licon because they had invited David Horowitz to speak on campus. After SAF helped to publicize her comments, both Johnson-Licon and the university administration made full apologies to the students and to David Horowitz. The DePauw College Republicans and SAF chapter are planning meetings with the campus administration at which they will encourage the University to adopt the Academic Bill of Rights.