Forwarded by Lorraine Kasprisin, Secretary to the Faculty Senate (see sample Bruin letter at the end of document)
UCLA Alumni Group Is Tracking 'Radical' Faculty - L.A. Times 1-18-06
By Stuart Silverstein and Peter Y. Hong, Times Staff Writers
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.
Some of the
instructors mentioned accuse the association of conducting a witch hunt that
threatens to harm the teaching atmosphere, and at least one of the group's
advisory board members has resigned because he considers the bounty offers
inappropriate. The university said it will warn the association that selling
copies of professors' lectures would violate campus rules and raise copyright
issues.
The Bruin Alumni Assn. is headed by Andrew Jones, a 24-year-old who graduated in
June 2003 and was chairman of UCLA's Bruin Republicans student group. He said
his organization, which is registered with the state as a nonprofit, does not
charge dues and has no official members, but has raised a total of $22,000 from
100 donors. Jones said the biggest contribution to the group, $5,000, came from
a foundation endowed by Arthur N. Rupe, 88, a Santa Barbara resident and former
Los Angeles record producer.
Jones' group is following in the footsteps of various conservative groups that
have taken steps, including monitoring professors, to counter what they regard
as an overwhelming leftist tilt at elite colleges and universities around the
country. He said many of these efforts, however, have done a poor job of
documenting their claims. As a result, Jones said, the Bruin Alumni Assn. is
offering to pay students for tapes and notes from classes.
"We're just trying to get people back on a professional level of things. Having
been a student myself up until 2003, and then watching what other students like
myself have gone through, I'm very concerned about the level of professional
teaching at UCLA," said Jones, who said he is supporting himself with a modest
salary from the organization and is its only full-time employee.
He said he plans to show what he considers biased material to professors and
administrators and seek to have teachers present more balanced lectures or
possibly face reprimand.
UCLA administrators say they are planning no immediate legal action, other than
to notify Jones and to alert students that selling course materials without the
consent of the instructor and Chancellor Albert Carnesale violates university
policy. Patricia Jasper, a university lawyer, said UCLA would reserve the right
to take legal action if any students engaged in unauthorized selling of
materials.
Adrienne Lavine, chairwoman of UCLA's academic senate, agreed that the
university could do little more at this point. She said she found the profiles
on the alumni group's website "inflammatory" and "not a positive way to address
the concerns that Mr. Jones has expressed." Still, she said, "I certainly
support freedom of speech and that extends to Andrew Jones as much as it does to
every faculty member on campus."
The group's recent campaign has upset a number of targeted professors and
triggered the resignation last weekend of Harvard historian Stephan Thernstrom,
a prominent affirmative action opponent and former UCLA professor, from the
advisory board for Jones' organization.
Thernstrom said he joined the alumni group's more than 20-member advisory board
last year because he believed it "had a legitimate objective of combating the
extraordinary politicization of the faculty on elite campuses today."
Still, Thernstrom said, "I felt it was extremely unwise, one, to put out a list
of targets of investigation and to agree to pay students to provide information
about what was going on in the classroom of those students. That just seems to
me way too intrusive. It seems to me a kind of vigilantism that I very much
object to."
Thernstrom said a fellow advisory board member, Jascha Kessler, an emeritus UCLA
English professor, also resigned for the same reason. Kessler could not be
reached for comment, but Jones confirmed that Kessler had resigned.
Jones said other members of the advisory board include Linda Chavez, former
federal civil rights commissioner in the Reagan administration and head of a
Virginia-based anti-affirmative action group; former Republican Rep. Jim Rogan;
and current UCLA professors Matt Malkan and Thomas Schwartz.
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.
On one of its websites, the Bruin Alumni Group names education professor Peter
McLaren as No. 1 on its "The Dirty Thirty: Ranking the Worst of the Worst." It
says "this Canadian native teaches the next generation of teachers and
professors how to properly indoctrinate students."
McLaren, in a telephone interview, called the alumni group's tactics "beneath
contempt."
"Any sober, concerned citizen would look at this and see right through it as a
reactionary form of McCarthyism. Any decent American is going to see through
this kind of right-wing propaganda. I just find it has no credibility," he said.
The website also lists history professor Ellen DuBois, saying she "is in every
way the modern female academic: militant, impatient, accusatory, and radical —
very radical." In response, DuBois said: "This is a totally abhorrent invitation
to students to participate in a witch hunt … against their professors."
But DuBois minimized the effect on campus, saying "it's not even clear this is
much other than the ill-considered action of a handful, if that, of
individuals."
The group's leading financial backer, Rupe, is a UCLA alumnus. He said his
foundation donated $5,000 because "I think there's not enough balance on the
campus. Some families are going into hock to send their kids there, and are not
getting their money's worth."
Rupe said the group's plan to pay students to record alleged bias "would be
ideal if it could be done legally."
Rupe's philanthropy is not centered on conservative causes. His foundation
donated $500,000 to UC Santa Barbara in 1998 to endow a professorship studying
the effects of the media on social behavior.
Ronald E. Rice, who holds the professorship, said Rupe told him he was "really
interested in the truth. He wants to bring people with different perspectives
together to really argue."
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Dear Constituents and Senators,
Here is a follow up on my earlier e-mail if you would like to see the website (Bruin) and the letter that was sent to students offering to pay for monitoring classes at UCLA.
Lorraine
http://www.uclaprofs.com/studentshelp.htmlDo you have a professor who just can't stop talking about President Bush, about Howard Dean, about the war in Iraq, about MoveOn.org, about the Republican Party, about the Democratic Party, or any other ideological issue that has nothing to do with the class subject matter? It doesn't matter whether this is a past class, or your ongoing class this winter quarter.
If you can help UCLAProfs.com collect information about abusive, one-sided, or off-topic classroom behavior, we'll pay you for your work.
To see if we need information on the professors you've already taken, or will be taking this winter quarter, call 310-210-6735, or email bruinalumni
(AT) bruinalumni.com today, and you could be paid tomorrow.
The following are materials we need for past or ongoing classes, along with rates of compensation.
Full, detailed lecture notes, all professor-distributed materials, and full tape recordings of every class session, for one class: $100
(Note: lecture notes must make particular note of audience reactions, comments, and other details that will properly contextualize the professor's non-pertinent ideological comments. If the class in question is ongoing or upcoming, UCLAProfs.com will provide (if needed) all necessary taping equipment and materials.)
Full, detailed lecture notes and all professor-distributed materials, for one
class: $50
(Advisory: without tape recordings, detailed note-taking is crucial.
Particular care must be taken in transcribing the professor’s non-pertinent ideological comments as closely as possible to direct quotes.)
Advisory and all professor-distributed materials: $10
Even if you didn’t take detailed notes or attend class regularly, you can still help UCLAProfs.com by alerting us to a problem professor not already in our database or target list (below). This is a particularly attractive option for students wanting to report past classes in which their notes and attendance did not match UCLAProfs.com's high record-keeping standards. Simply provide us the name, your notes from the class (or substitute your current recollections), and any other materials you still retain, and we’ll pay you $10 for the tip.
DISCLAIMERS:
The Bruin Alumni Association will not render payment for copyrighted materials in any form. All participating students are required to sign a contractual agreement for full delivery of class materials, and must also sign an honesty clause declaring that their written notes are accurate and clearly delineate paraphrases from direct quotes. The Bruin Alumni Association will not purchase any lecture recordings that were obtained without consent of the recorded professor.
The preceding advertised rates for future, ongoing or past classes are contingent upon Bruin Alumni Association approval of both the particular professor, and student materials, and all decisions are final. For ongoing classes, payment will be tendered only upon timely delivery of all needed material. Email bruinalumni AT bruinalumni.com for full details.
An explanatory note for UCLA professors and others who have expressed concern with the UCLAProfs.com program:
UCLAProfs.com is not conducting a witch-hunt, engaging in police-state surveillance, or targeting privately-held political beliefs. We are concerned solely with indoctrination, one-sided presentation of ideological controversies, and unprofessional classroom behavior, no matter where it falls on the ideological spectrum. As an illustrative example of egregious behavior with which UCLAProfs is concerned, please review the article BAA President Andrew Jones wrote about his experience in a 2002 political science class.
Occasional political remarks, jokes, or the like are generally harmless behavior. We are concerned with a class which in full any reasonable observer would agree was taught in an unacceptable or unprofessional manner.
The fees paid to students are truly nominal compensation for the extra work we demand. Our standards for class notes are exacting, and for ongoing classes, we will offer specific guidelines to participating students. The small amounts of money we pay will motivate participants to attend every class session, and in the case of the highest compensation (all of $100), reward the extra effort that taping all class lectures requires.
Accusing a professor of unprofessional behavior is in essence an accusation of professional malfeasance. UCLAProfs.com will air such charges only after extended reviews of a professor’s record. The taping of lectures leaves no room for a vengeful student to take questionable statements out of context, to (deliberately or inadvertently) misquote a professor, or to otherwise give a false portrait of the class. As such, we find the current hysteria, and the many intemperate accusations that the UCLAProfs.com program is a “blacklist,”
“ratting out” professors, or other contemptible phenomenon, to be a severe distortion. Our program is more fair and more professional than many similar ongoing projects which rely on volunteer reports that in too many cases are thinly backed by independent evidence.
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From the LA Times:
Subject: - Advisor to UCLA alumni group resigns
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-rogan19jan19,0,2184523.storyAdvisor Quits UCLA Alumni Group
Ex-GOP Rep. James E. Rogan resigns from the fledgling conservative
organization, which has offered to pay students to report on
instructors.
By Peter Y. Hong - Times Staff Writer - January 19, 2006
Former U.S. Rep. James E. Rogan has resigned from the advisory board
of a conservative UCLA alumni group after learning that the group's
founder had offered students $100 payments to record professors'
"non-pertinent ideological comments."
Rogan, a Republican who represented Glendale and Pasadena for two
terms and was a manager in the impeachment trial of President
Clinton, said he did not want his name linked to the controversial
effort to record professors in their classrooms.
Rogan, now a lawyer in Irvine, on Wednesday sent an e-mail tendering
his resignation to Andrew Jones, head of the Bruin Alumni Assn. and
its one full-time employee. The year-old group, supported by
donations, has no formal connection to UCLA.
In his e-mail, Rogan wrote, "I am uncomfortable to say the least
with this tactic. It places students in jeopardy of violating myriad
regulations and laws."
Jones had offered to pay UCLA students $100 for recordings and
lecture notes of professors caught in "indoctrination, one-sided
presentation of ideological controversies and unprofessional
classroom behavior." Jones said one student, whom he declined to
identify, had taken up the offer thus far.
While saying that he was interested in monitoring professors who
inject any sort of inappropriate ideology into courses, Jones has
identified mainly instructors with liberal and leftist views as
potential monitoring targets.
Rogan said that when he agreed to serve on the alumni group's
advisory board, he believed its role would be to mentor Republican
students and student groups. He said he did not recall any
discussion of faculty monitoring, which he does not support.
"I went to Berkeley as an undergraduate and UCLA law school. I don't
need to go to a website to learn there is an overabundance of
liberal faculty," Rogan said.
Being taught by liberal professors is a simple fact of life when
attending an elite university, Rogan said. "You should not go to
Harvard and be surprised to find an over-abundance of liberals," he
said.
Of his own education, Rogan said the faculty's ideology "doesn't
seem to have hurt me."
Rogan's resignation follows that of Harvard historian Stephan
Thernstrom and UCLA professor emeritus Jascha Kessler, who also quit
the board after the plan to record professors was announced.
The group's monitoring effort has outraged several faculty members
listed as potential targets; they likened it to a witch hunt that
could harm the classroom atmosphere.
But advisory board member Shawn Steel, a lawyer who was recently
chairman of the California Republican Party, called the effort to
record professors "a great idea";. I can't see anything
controversial about recording a professor speaking in an open
class."
Steel said recording professors could "expose the nasty secrets of
the university. Most parents assume students get a square education
at a public university, when in fact, there is no real intellectual
diversity. If a student says anything positive about Bush, he'll get
bashed."
Jones, 24, who graduated in June 2003 and was chairman of UCLA's
Bruin Republicans student group, said of Rogan, "I wish him well. It
was a pleasure to have worked with him."
Since news reports of his financial offer to students appeared,
Jones said he had received about 200 e-mails, both supportive and
critical, on Wednesday. Rogan is the only board member who resigned
following a Times story about the offer, he said.
UCLA officials said paying students to record professors would
probably violate university policies.
The university dictates that students cannot give or sell notes or
other records of course presentations without the written consent of
the instructor and the chancellor.
Officials said they intend to notify Jones of that policy but are
not taking any other action at this point.
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