The National Association of Scholars is to higher education what an evolutionist is to a tent revival: a distinct and unwelcome minority. The organization consists of conservative academics who enjoy challenging the dominant leftist ideology that pervades the modern university. It particularly relishes confronting political correctness.
When last heard from in the Old Dominion, the NAS was castigating Virginia Tech for a proposed diversity policy in the college of arts and sciences that amounted to an ideological litmus test for professional advancement.
Now the NAS has taken Liberty University to task for denying school recognition to the student Democratic club. Although Liberty might be within its legal and constitutional rights -- something that will be settled by a lawsuit filed the other day by Americans United for Separation of Church and State -- it made the wrong call, the NAS contends.
The group says Liberty erred in several ways: First, by demonstrating fearfulness and timidity in the face of ideas it finds disturbing. The NAS advises instead "disciplined tolerance for views it regards as mistaken." Second, the NAS says Liberty is failing to prepare students for larger debates beyond the campus walls. And third, the school is legitimizing the idea that it is acceptable for universities to silence particular points of view:
"Liberty University, in its decision to de-recognize the Young Democrats Association, throws away the principled argument that the university should be a place where all views are welcome, provided they are advanced rationally and in a civil manner. Liberty University is already a self-marginalized institution and may not much care that it has just reinforced the image of the Christian right as narrow-minded and intellectually feeble. But it ought to care. If Liberty University wants to influence the larger culture and not just preach to the choir, it needs to take the high ground. That means modeling robust intellectual debate, engaging people it disagrees with, and teaching students how to respond thoughtfully to a variety of ideas."
Well put.
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