Website targets ‘leftist’ profs
Conservative nonprofit creates college ‘watchlist’
Santiago Pinon, a religion professor at Texas Christian University, dashed off an email to several students on a fall afternoon in 2013.
“I would like to ask if you are interested in a gettogether on Monday afternoon? We can also discuss the exam that is coming up, if you want,” he wrote. “I don’t mind if this would turn out to be a study session for my STUDENTS OF COLOR ONLY.”
Rushing out of his office, he sent the email without rereading or editing the note, which he now regrets. A screenshot was later posted by a student to social media and reported on by Inside Higher Education, a trade publication.
More than three years later, the incident resurfaced in a database from conservative-leaning nonprofit Turning Point USA. The website, launched Nov. 21, aggregates reports of professors who allegedly “discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom” from individual stories, right-leaning websites, student newspapers and higher education publications.
The “Professor Watchlist” is not, of course, the first of its kind to accuse faculty members of a liberal bias. Campuses around the state and nation have long been considered to be leftleaning hubs where social liberalism is embraced and academic freedom — the principle in which profes-
sors have freedom of inquiry and expression in their classroom, research and public speech — is sacred.
But given Donald Trump’s presidential run that criticized political correctness and, in some cases, promoted factual inaccuracies, faculty members around the state have called the list potentially chilling to academic discourse and criticize it for spreading and endorsing false statements. Ten professors from six Texas institutions were listed as of Wednesday, of about 145 professors total.
The election, they say, promoted a culture that allows unsubstantiated rumors to spread and permits vitriol and intimidation in discourse. Anyone can submit a “tip” to the website, sourced from news reports, firsthand experience and “word of mouth.”
Evidence is optional, and many of the listings do not describe “leftist propaganda” in the classroom or discrimination against conservative students. Some note the liberal views of faculty members’ published essays, social media posts or interview excerpts.
“It’s not our claim that discriminating against students on the basis of their political beliefs is somehow safeguarded by academic freedom,” said Hans-Joerg Tiede, the associate secretary of the American Association of University Professors’ department of academic freedom, tenure and governance. “But if an accusation of that kind is used to hamper the academic freedom of a faculty member, I think that’s the issue.”
‘Must be amicable’
Reflecting on the 2013 incident, Pinon said not editing the email was a “horrible idea.”
He said in an email that he generally holds study sessions with all students, in addition to individual and group sessions upon request. In explaining why he sent the publicized email, he said students from underrepresented groups ask for academic help less frequently than their peers.
Pinon decried today’s political climate as deeply polarized, recalling being threatened after the email was publicized initially. Though he values debate, “when we are done we still must be amicable.”
Matthew Lamb, Turning Point USA’s director of constitutional enforcement and transparency, said Tuesday that the website can serve as “another tool for students” as they evaluate whether to take a class or consider what to expect when they walk into a lecture hall.
He acknowledges that Trump’s election and recent focus on political correctness may give the site more attention than it otherwise would have. But he said the database will help students navigate an educational environment that he says doesn’t hold professors accountable.
Founded in 2012 by 23-year-old Charlie Kirk, the Illinois-based organization is active on high school and college campuses across the country. It aims to attract young conservative voters with slogans like “big government sucks” and “I love capitalism.”
Turning Point USA raised more than $2 million from gifts, grants, contributions and membership fees in 2014, according to filings, more than four times what it raised in 2013.
But faculty members say that the organization’s recent list may cause some professors, especially those without tenure, to fear sharing opinions.
“I feel confident that both the legal system and the institution of which I’m a part will protect freedom of expression and academic freedom, but I also recognize that can change quickly,” said UT journalism professor Robert Jensen, who appears on the website in a listing that notes that he published an essay connecting rape to societal patriarchy.
‘Indifferent to accuracy’
Non-tenured professors, said University of Houston history professor Gerald Horne, may see this list and “receive a signal that they should steer away from certain subjects and topics.”
Horne’s listing cited an interview in which he highlighted the national anthem’s origins after San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick refused to stand for the anthem. Horne, who has tenure, said Tuesday that the comments were not made in the classroom.
But the AAUP’s Tiede said the list “basically accuses all of these individuals as having engaged in” discrimination and indoctrination. “That goes beyond simply collecting information.”
The site’s mission statement initially accused listed professors of promoting “anti-American values” and has been edited after organizers received criticism that the database attacked free speech, Lamb said. Some inaccuracies have been corrected since the site went live, he said.
Others still remain. One listing cites a petition from UT history professor Joan Neuberger. It says her call to bar gun-carrying students from entering classrooms would break Texas law. She said in an interview with the New York Times that the site misconstrued the events, as the campus carry law was not finalized when the petition circulated.
“The effort to discredit professors is so broad that it seems to be nothing more than an effort to undermine us and circumscribe what we say and do in the classroom,” she wrote in an email, vowing to fight against those who are indifferent to accuracy.