US academia witch hunt?

It is disturbing to find that a new website called the "Professor Watchlist" has appeared in the United States on November 21, 2016, and according to the New York Times it accuses nearly 200 college professors of advancing "leftist propaganda in the classroom" and discriminating against conservative students which has been criticised as a threat to academic freedom...it names those instructors who "advance a radical agenda in lecture halls." "We aim to post professors who have records of targeting students for their viewpoints, forcing students to adopt a certain perspective, and/or abuse or harm students in any way for standing up for their beliefs". That's the statement of Matt Lamb, an organiser of the site.

It is a project of 'Turning Point USA', a non-profit organisation that apparently aims to "educate" students about "true free market values." As further reported by the same newspaper, Charlie Kirk, founder and executive director of the organisation has written in his blog that "it's no secret that some of America's college professors are totally out of line", and that it was time to expose them. Indeed some professors have already been "exposed" by this movement and what is disturbing to note here is that we have a former professor from the University of Missouri who was found speaking on a video calling for the use of "some muscle" to remove a journalist from a student demonstration. The professor was fired by the university.

Is this the new face of America? Where intolerance is not only accepted but actively encouraged? It brings back sour memories of Senator McCarthy, who back in 1950 fuelled fears of widespread Communist subversion. He claimed that there were large numbers of Communist and Soviet spies and sympathisers in the United States federal government and elsewhere, and it created grounds for a massive witch hunt that destroyed many promising careers in different spheres of American society and government. Today, the Soviet Union does not exist, and the Communist "peril" has been replaced by "leftist" propaganda and it is still too early to conclude that those dark times are returning to the US.

The existence of such a movement has created a lot of tension in academic circles between those who have decided to wait-and-see and those who wish to take the fight to the right-of-centre elements that are propagating the "Professors Watchlist". There are signs that some are not going to take this lying down. Indeed, a counter movement is already afoot. We find that the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) have delivered an open letter to Turning Point, USA requesting more than 11,000 faculty and supporter signatories be added to its list, as a show of support for those who have already been listed. The letter stated "The American Association of University Professors has supported academic freedom and opposed those who seek to curtail it for more than a hundred years, and will continue to do so, because the common good depends upon the free search for truth and its free exposition. The type of monitoring of professors in which you are engaged can only inhibit the process through which higher learning occurs and knowledge is advanced." Julie Schmid, executive director of the AAUP, added, "We are exceedingly concerned about the current climate for academic freedom and the implications for our society. This watch list is an unwelcome attempt to intimidate and silence voices on campus. It comes at a time when professors are being targeted with death threats and online harassment, largely not for their speech or activities in the classroom or on the job."

The battle lines are clearly drawn. And the biggest worry, of course, is that no one knows presently what the new education policy will be under President Trump. If anti-intellectualism is going to be allowed to flourish unabated then academic freedom is in the direct line of fire. Indeed, that is what is being expressed by the AAUP which believes that the election result "threatens some of the core institutions of our democracy and may be the greatest threat to academic freedom since the McCarthy period." But then, some academics believe that the Trump era will be no worse than the Obama and Clinton eras, which were, according to some academics, even more authoritarian.

As stated before, it is too early to make conclusions on what the current administration's policies will be on education, particularly higher education. But from what has been reported in mainstream US media, groups such as Turning Point USA have the capacity to open up the Pandora's Box on racist slur and rightwing action on campuses nationwide. Such affronts to academic freedoms have plagued the country during the height of the Cold War, and rationality eventually forced the US Senate to censure Senator McCarthy, but not before causing extensive damage. Repetition of such historical mistakes in today's America is, hopefully unthinkable, but should such forces be unleashed, they will not go unchallenged. To what extent the AAUP (and other likeminded platforms and alliances) will be able to counter extreme right wing propaganda will determine the outcome of this brewing battle.

The writer is Assistant Editor, The Daily Star.