Maybe the right wingers will be interested in expanding this UCLA program to pay student Quislings.
A fledgling alumni group headed by a former campus Republican leader is offering students payments of up to $100 per class to provide information on instructors who are “abusive, one-sided or off-topic” in advocating political ideologies.
The year-old Bruin Alumni Assn. says its “Exposing UCLA’s Radical Professors” initiative takes aim at faculty “actively proselytizing their extreme views in the classroom, whether or not the commentary is relevant to the class topic.” Although the group says it is concerned about radical professors of any political stripe, it has named an initial “Dirty 30” of teachers it identifies with left-wing or liberal causes.
I’m liberal, a partisan Democrat, and I’m also outspoken as a flaming godless atheist—a perfect target for their partisan hackwork.
I’d like to turn myself in. I’d be happy to surrender copies of my lecture notes and make tape recordings of every class for that $100 bounty. The money would come in handy (I’m sitting in the orthodontist’s office waiting for my daughter’s appointment to end…boy, would $100 help.)
Jones said he has lined up one student who, for $100 a class session, has agreed to provide tapes, detailed lecture notes and materials with what the group considers inappropriate opinion. He would not name the student or the professor whose class will be monitored. Jones characterized the work as non-commercial news gathering and advocacy that does not violate university policy.
Holy crap! It isn’t per term—it’s per class hour! I’m in class for 7 hours and 45 minutes per week, for 15 weeks per term. That would be $23,250 a year! Feeding the persecution fantasies of the wingers could be a rather lucrative occupation.
Do you have an online course I could sign up for?
I’m liberal, a partisan Democrat, and I’m also outspoken as a flaming godless atheista perfect target for their partisan hackwork.
I’ve got all those, and I’m gay to boot–and teaching at a Catholic College. The $100/class hour would certainly be more than I’m making as a teaching fellow or adjunct faculty.
MMM interesting tactic, maybe there should be a website exposing those institutions or teachers who wish to indoctrinate their students with ideals founded on faerie tales and and wishful thinking or downright lies and distortion of facts (as we have recently witnessed). After all, using the web-sites own words:
“When considering the threat represented by McLaren and his radical ilk, we must realize that in the field of education, unlike almost any other field, political indoctrination doesn?t end with the first transmission, but survives to threaten the next generation. Worse yet is that McLaren is in charge of molding the professional behavior of many future educators at an education school”
The US airforce academy and every religious college could head the list, it applies to any religious doctrine only more so as it has no basis in fact and cannot be argued against as an argument is a rational action conducted in real life using verifiable facts.
Funny how the wing nuts want their cake and eat it too
Apparantly, there have been some resignations over this.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/01/19/professors.targeted.ap/index.html
That is, resignations from the board of the nutcase association.
Hey, I’ll do the informing and we can split the proceeds. My kids need orthodonty too.
I wonder if they’d like to set up a Canadian operation? With the imminent arrival of new conservative government in Ottawa, maybe I can make enough on the side to retire in a few years, just ahead of the inquisition…
And when that kid fails his class because he spent all his time looking for lefty bias rather than paying attention to the subject, he’ll still claim he was persecuted for his beliefs.
Not so fast — it looks (to my eye, anyway) like you only get paid if you document an “inappropriate opinion” in the lecture. So, unless you can make sure you’ve got at least one per lecture, you’re not walking away with buckets of wingnut money.
I was thinking similar–that lefty and proud professors actually encourage ALL their students to turn them in. The blacklist becomes a list of pride, and all the prof’s students get some well needed cash.
Kickbacks to the prof would be the right thing to do, of course.
“Not so fast — it looks (to my eye, anyway) like you only get paid if you document an “inappropriate opinion” in the lecture. So, unless you can make sure you’ve got at least one per lecture, you’re not walking away with buckets of wingnut money.”
That won’t make them pause. Denouncing the innocent for money has long roots. Sulla’s proscriptions come to mind and I’d be astounded if Sulla’s buddies were doing anything at all novel.
I wonder if you actually have to go to class, or if you can just sit at home and make stuff up..
From John B’s link: “We’re just trying to get people back on a professional level of things,” Jones told The Los Angeles Times.
If this is as articulate as UCLA alumni are, then something needs to be done. I’m not sure spying on alleged pinkos is the solution, though…
Won’t somebody think of the children?
You know what’s funny, I didn’t even know the political affiliations or leanings of my poli sci professors until my senior year of undergrad, when I was chatting with one prof over dinner at a restaurant. Dr. O, whom I’d always thought of as rather liberal, turned out to be a Republican, and Dr. T, a former military man whom I’d always thought of as a “law and order” conservative, turned out to be a Democrat.
It just goes to show that even in POLITICAL CLASSES, a professor’s personal political leanings are rarely apparent. And in fact, I’d offer that the more relevent a professor’s political views might be to a lesson, the less they will appear in a class. One of my theatre professors was a fairly outspoken peace activist, which was about as surprising as Grover Norquist endorsing a tax cut, but surely any student who takes political lessons from a theatre class, or a biology class or psychology class for that matter, has far bigger problems than any kind of “brainwashing,” it raises the question of whether said student has a brain to wash.
Does UCLA offer creative writing as a course? I see potential for a beautiful class collaboration here :-)
Yeah, I’m afraid that the one time I overtly advertised a political event in class (a peace march before the war), I also told the students about the counter-demonstration that was going on at the same time.
Not so fast — it looks (to my eye, anyway) like you only get paid if you document an “inappropriate opinion” in the lecture.
I’m a sociologist who teaches queer studies–everything I say would be “inappropriate” for these folks…I’m rich!
STUDENT WITH MICRORECORDER: Professor, I was just wondering if I could have your opinion about three civillians who were killed today by an American bomb in the Middle-East?
PROFESSOR: That’s terrible!
STUDENT: Cha-ching!
PROFESSOR: Pardon?
STUDENT: Ah, catching! Catching your drift sir! And would you say the current administration’s foreign policy has been flawlessly exucuted over the past five years?
PROFESSOR: I wouldn’t characterize it as such, no.
STUDENT: Boo-yeah! Complete DVD set of Japanese Animated Babes in Skintight Costumes here I come! …I mean, thank you very much for your thoughts, sir. Could you repeat that just a little louder and speak towards my pocket?
Sorry PZ,
It’s $100.00 to document EVERY class session for a given class.
It’s $100.00 to document EVERY class session for a given class.
Still almost as good as adjunct pay.
In line with what Hyperion said I can only think of one professor ( a history professor) who made any kind of political statements in class (an anti-Clinton kind of tirade). Other than that all the professors I had kept their politics to themselves…
wow…Ive already been accused of political intolerance last spring semester..so they must have a file on me someplace. Should I make a deal with a student? I mean…Ill take $40 a class and s/he can take $60 and Ill just give my lectures. I teach cultural anthropology (how godless!) but Im also doing a Classical Sociological theory class this semester….4 weeks on Marx alone!!! Ca-Ching!
Yeah, I see over at Bérubé’s place that he’s got more detail, and it’s only $100 per term. RIPOFF!
Pretty good scratch. (sniff.sniff) Hmmmm. I smell Scaife.
“…..inappropriate opinion….” Are these idiots for real? I smell LAW SUIT.
Is it legal to record lectures without permission? It seems unethical, especially if the person recording receives 30 pieces of silver.
from the CNN article:
Funny, I thought most parents wanted their kids to get a good education rather than a ‘square’ one. Maybe if we force them to listen to big-band music and dress like dorks it’ll be ‘square’ enough to pass muster….
What kind of ideology can not stand a challenge from an outside source? Perhaps one not founded on facts…
The same thing happened when I was a student at Texas A&M (although no money was involved). The Young Conservatives of Texas there published a “Professor Watch List” and a “Hall of Dishonor”. Here was my response. The whole effort was pretty lame, though, since A&M was already really conservative.
Activist drops reward for info on ‘radical’ professors
It looks like your demands have bankrupted them!