Academic repression.

The Brussels Tribunal has launched an urgent petition to save Iraq's academics. A little known aspect of the tragedy of the Iraq War is the systematic liquidation of the country's academics. Over 250 educators have been assassinated and many hundreds more have disappeared. "According to the United Nations University, some 84 percent of Iraq's institutions of higher learning have been burned, looted or destroyed." For the call to action and more information on the petition, go to www.brusselstribunal.org/Academics.htm.

On January 25, 2006 the American Library Association adopted a Resolution in Support of Academic Freedom. The final RESOLVED states: "the American Library Association opposes any legislation or codification of documents like the Academic Bill of Rights' (ABOR) that undermine academic and intellectual freedom, chill free speech, and/or otherwise interfere with the academic community's well-established norms and values of scholarship and educational excellence." To view the entire Resolution, go to www.ala.org.

Accuracy in Academia, a rightwing campus-watch group, took displeasure from the roundtable presented by the Radical Caucus at the December 2005 Modern Language Association Convention. The roundtable centered around discussions of anti-war English courses, the legislative dangers of the Academic Bill of Rights, criticisms of the Patriot Act, and attacks on professors since 9/11. Radical Teacher's very own Jacqueline Brady and Michael Bennett were critiqued for their positions on hiring pro-war faculty. For Accuracy in Academia's full report on the MLA convention, read The Conservative Voice, February 2, 2006.

Andrew Jones, a 2003 UCLA graduate formed a group called the Bruin Alumni Association (www.uclaprofs.com) and a website asking UCLA students: "Do you have a professor who just can't stop talking about President Bush, about the war in Iraq, about the Republican 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 class from this coming winter quarrel If you help expose the professor, we'll pay you for your work." The pay is $100 and the work involves turning in class notes and handouts, and illicit recording of lectures. Professors are targeted not so much for what they might say in class but for their out-of-class activities like signing petitions, writing articles, or supporting political movements. Even though Jones eventually dropped his $100 bounty, he pledged to continue his surveillance of faculty using unpaid volunteers (The Los Angeles Times, January 22 and 24, 2006).

The Pennsylvania House Committee on Academic Freedom met on January 10, 2006 to find out whether students faced political or religious discrimination as suggested by David Horowitz's campaign to enact the Academic Bill of Rights. For coverage of the testimonies, from both sides, see The Los Angeles Times, January 22, 2006; The Chronicle of Higher Education, February 10, 2006; AFT On Campus, March/April, 2006; and The Philadelphia Inquirer, January 10, 2006. See http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/01/11/retr act for David Horowitz's admission that he had no evidence to support two of the stories he has told multiple times to back up his charges that political bias is rampant in higher education.

A study, "What's in a Grade? Academic Success and Political Orientation" casts doubt on the claim that conservative students face discrimination in class. The study found no difference in the grades conservative and liberal students receive in sociology, cultural anthropology, and women's studies courses and even found that conservative students earn higher grades than their liberal classmates in business and economics courses (The Chronicle of Higher Education, March 30, 2006).