Soccer Dad

Covering for Columbia

Today's editorial, "Intimidation at Columbia" criticizes the Columbia panel designated to investigate intimidation by Professors of students for failing to do its job fully. Here's a fascinating paragraphs:

But in the end, the report is deeply unsatisfactory because the panel's mandate was so limited. Most student complaints were not really about intimidation, but about allegations of stridently pro-Palestinian, anti-Israeli bias on the part of several professors. The panel had no mandate to examine the quality and fairness of teaching. That leaves the university to follow up on complaints about politicized courses and a lack of scholarly rigor as part of its effort to upgrade the department. One can only hope that Columbia will proceed with more determination and care than it has heretofore.

They had no mandate to "...examine the quality and fairness of teaching." So what. Let me give you a clue: if you have an Edward Said chair of Middle Eastern studies you will have at least one biased lecturer. Said was a professor of English literature who was also a politcal activist. He used his credibility in one discipline to impose himself on another. A holder of the Edward Said chair in Middle Eastern studies cannot be expected to be overly balanced. When you consider the funding of the chair, it is even more suspect. ( I have seen, I don't remember where, that despite these impressions Rashid Khalidi is fair within the framework of the classroom.)
And of course, there's no word about the Times deal with Columbia agreeing to get an early copy of the report as long as it contacted no interested parties. Here's CampusJ on that as it deserves lots of credit for pursuing this story and giving it life. (Cute ad on the CampusJ website right now: Meet Palestinian Singles. Ironic?)
Crossposted on Israpundit and Soccer Dad.

Posted by SoccerDad at April 7, 2005 06:27 AM | TrackBack