Wesselhoft authors academic "sunshine" bill

OKLAHOMA CITY — While many state legislators are struggling with issues such as reduced state revenue and problems with the Department of Corrections, state Rep. Paul Wesselhoft has a different worry.

Wesselhoft is concerned about free speech at the state’s colleges and universities.

Wesselhoft, a Moore Republican, is asking Oklahoma college students to “contact him if they feel their free-speech rights are being taken away” in the classroom. He made the announcement in an e-mailed news release sent to the state’s three largest universities — the University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University and the University of Central Oklahoma.

“This is an important issue that guarantees freedom of speech but also impacts a student’s freedom to express personal choices — whether religious views or political ideas or general moral beliefs,” Wesselhoft said.

Wesselhoft said he became concerned after attending legislative conferences in Phoenix, Ariz., and Philadelphia, Pa.

“I attended these national conferences and it came to my attention at both of these places that some universities are having problems,” he said.

Wesselhoft claimed that at some of the country’s universities, professors are “not getting tenure because they might be on the wrong side of issues such as global warming.”

The professors, he said, are having promotions and tenure withheld because of their beliefs. And students in class, he said, are being graded harshly because they might disagree with a professor’s view.

“Even though they have credentials and they publish in academic journals, they are not being treated fairly. And I’ve heard of many students who feel like they have been unfairly treated.”

Because of that, the Moore Republican has authored House Bill 2600 — the Higher Education Sunshine Act — which would require public higher education institutions to file an annual report with the Legislature detailing how they encouraged intellectual diversity and “the free exchange of ideas.”

Wesselhoft could not cite any examples of the problem in Oklahoma.

“I don’t known of anything like that right now,” he said. “I am hearing from professors at OU, OSU and UCO. And most of them are saying, ‘Mind your own business, leave us alone in the classroom.’”

But Wesselhoft said he believes the issue is a “legitimate concern.”

“It may very well be there is not a pattern here,” he said. “Right now, I’m only collecting anecdotal information. All I’m asking for is for the presidents of our state’s colleges and universities to detail how they handle diversity issues.”

Wesselhoft’s claims, however, don’t sit well with the national organization that represents university professors.

In a posting on the American Association of University Professors Web site, the AAUP “sharply criticized” efforts to create an academic bill of rights or which push for intellectual diversity.

Those efforts, the AAUP said, are “unnecessary and almost certain to compromise academic freedom rather than defend it. At their core, these measures would place decisions about faculty appointments and the content of academic programs in the hands of political officials, thereby jeopardizing not only the independence of faculty members and their institutions but also their capacity to advance knowledge and educate our students.”

At OU students and faculty members also criticized the idea.

In a story published recently in the OU Daily — the university’s student newspaper — OU chemistry professor Phillip Klebba, said intellectual diversity already exists at OU.

“Diversity is already a, if not the, defining characteristic of institutions of higher education,” he said. “Are state legislators better qualified to evaluate intellectual diversity than the individuals in this chain of authority? Most of whom have spent their entire careers seeking to optimize the learning environment of colleges and universities.”

Klebba told the OU Daily that “requiring OU to report to the Legislature duplicates existing policy; OU already conducts comprehensive annual reviews of all academic activities.”

Student congress chair Jordan McGee agreed.

“I haven’t ever had the experience of being censored in the classroom,” McGee said. “The discussions in my classes have always been for the pursuit of academic knowledge.”

McGee, an Edmond senior, said he didn’t see how Wesselhoft’s bill would help.

“I don’t see how a bill could ever change that,” he said. “That type of information is not objectively verifiable.”

Still, Wesselhoft said the issue is worth exploring.

“I think it’s a legitimate question that needs to be asked,” he said. “I don’t have a deadline. And I hope to hear from students and professors. I’m not on a witch hunt, but I suspect that (some) colleges and universities are indoctrinating students.”