Ahmadinejad Invited To Speak At CU + Academic Slavery

Controversial Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been invited to speak at Columbia University, a move certain to upset New York politicians, pundits, and university haters in general.

I think the campus Greens should invite Ahmadinejad to speak at UW Oshkosh. Then before he gets here, our chancellor could assure everyone that no taxpayer dollars are being used to arrange the visit. Then he could reprise the Kevin Barrett provoked panel on "Why Smart People Believe Weird Things" and create another on "What Social and Psychological Conditions Predispose People to Develop and Accept Holocaust Denial?” He'd have to arrange these panels, of course, because our campus community apparently would not be smart enough to recognize on their own where Ahmadinejad is coming from, just like they are apparently not able to dissect the views of Kevin Barrett without first having his presentation framed as "weird." Plus the panels would allow our legislature and governor to rest assured knowing that we are good little boys and girls here at Oshkosh who will do what is necessary to stigmatize any event on campus that does not meet with the approval of Representive Steve Nass, right wing pundits, or other university haters.

I'm starting to think that we ought to replace the once venerated notion of "academic freedom" with one that is more realistic to the time we are living in, "academic slavery." In the era of academic freedom, the universities invite controversial ideas, urge an ethic of subjecting them to critical analysis, and defend the right of each individual to draw his or her own conclusions from the evidence presented to them. In the era of academic slavery, administrators and faculty go to lengths to protect their collective asses against the Nass-es of the world who are perceived as having power to punish us if we do not behave according to their definition of what is appropriate for the academy.