University of South Carolina: Mandated Orthodoxy in the Classroom
FIRE protested University of South Carolina Professor Lynn Weber's imposition of a political "litmus test" in order to enroll in "Women's Studies 797: Seminar in Women's Studies," which was required of students who sought to earn a graduate certificate in Women's Studies. Professor Weber distributed "Guidelines for Classroom Discussion" that required students to "acknowledge that racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism, and other institutionalized forms of oppression exist." In response, FIRE President Alan Charles Kors wrote to University of South Carolina President John F. Palms, reminding him that Professor Weber's guidelines violated students' first amendment rights by forcing them to take a loyalty oath, the university's own policies, as well as those of the American Association of University Professors. FIRE has not received a response from President Palms.
"Mandated Orthodoxy Under Fire in South Carolina," FIRE Press Release, September 26, 2002: In May 2002, FIRE brought to the nation's attention a set of ideologically partisan and stifling "Guidelines for Class Discussion" from a women's studies course at the University of South Carolina. This week, in an extremely revealing article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, administrators at that public institution have begun to dissociate themselves from the professor's mandated orthodoxy.
"University of South Carolina Mandates Political Indoctrination and Orthodoxy," FIRE Press Release, May 13, 2002: The University of South Carolina (USC), in the "Guidelines for Classroom Discussion" of a required course in a degree-granting program, demands allegiance to a narrow set of partisan political beliefs—on pain of being graded poorly for honest disagreement.
