Carola Pfortner: Legislator is threat to academic freedom
A letter to the editor
http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/l...=89636&ntpid=0
6/30/2006
Dear Editor: State Rep. Nass is calling for the firing of Kevin Barrett, a teacher at UW-Madison and Edgewood College who dared to share his admittedly nonconformist opinion on his own time. Nass states, "Tuition-paying families shouldn't have to pay the salary of someone with such views."
As the parent of three current college students, I beg to differ. We pay $37,000 annually, including Edgewood College and UW-Madison tuition. I would be glad to have such a spunky teacher challenge my kids.
Look up "academic freedom" in Webster's dictionary and find this definition: "freedom to teach or to learn without interference (as by government officials)." It turns out, Rep. Nass is the one who constitutes a threat to academic freedom with his demand.
Universities actually are supposed to produce free-thinkers provoked to have their own opinions by staff that does not walk in lock step and that dares to think beyond the conventional (duh, to use my kids' favorite exclamation).
I don't invest my life earnings in the education of my children to have some small-minded, bone-headed legislator interfere with the very spirit of higher education! A university resisting such threats to academic freedom is actually worth my financial support. UW and Edgewood: Keep Barrett and await my parental monies.
Carola Pfortner
Madison
6/30/2006
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