The College Fix

UC Merced campus leaders have released a statement in support of Dr. Ross Avilla, a lecturer who told students in a psychology class last fall that most acts of terrorism in America are committed by white men who are “religiously motivated and politically conservative” and “9/11 is basically the only act of foreign-born terrorism that has ever happened in the United States.”

After the lesson was reported on by The College Fix, it prompted a wide variety of criticism, both in online comments and elsewhere.

The scholar was accused of everything from bias to being flat out incorrect about his claim 9/11 was the only act of foreign-born terrorism in the U.S. Students in his own class listed examples to refute that. Another professor from Florida came out to debunk the suggestion that right-wing extremists in the U.S. are more deadly than Islamic terrorists.

In response to the controversy, UC Merced defended the scholar, suggesting in an email to the campus community this week that no academic theory is too outlandish to pursue, and casting the criticism Avilla received as akin to being “targeted for punishment.”

In their email, Chancellor Dorothy Leland and Provost Tom Peterson seem to contradict themselves, at once defending academic inquiry and debate, and yet at the same time shaming as intolerant bullies those who dared question or condemn Avilla’s lesson.

The Jan. 19 email stated:

Dear members of the campus community,

As your Chancellor and Provost, we are proud of the culture of tolerance and respect that defines UC Merced. We are equally proud to be part of a university culture committed to fostering an academic environment where the search for truth and knowledge can occur without fear of retribution.

These principles occasionally must be reaffirmed. One recent case in point relates to media reports concerning a class lecture given this past fall at UC Merced. Some of the comments made by the lecturer were recorded and sent to a news and commentary blog, resulting in some angry and hostile reactions from people whose understanding of what happened was drawn from resulting media stories.

And so, as a new semester begins, we want to reaffirm to you our fundamental commitments to free inquiry and debate in our research, creative expression and our classrooms.

The university is an intellectual community where the search for truth matters and evidence counts, and where we are committed to identifying and gathering relevant information, analyzing it, testing it, and then drawing conclusions as the end result of such inquiry. This commitment to intellectual inquiry defines us as an academic institution and stands with us to ward off unfounded prejudice, discredited theories, distorted perspectives and factual manipulations that thwart processes of discovery. The commitment does not guarantee that we will always be right, but it does ensure that we strive to remain open to new evidence and insights, and understand the importance of the clash of competing ideas.

We are also committed to academic freedom, which is essential to the pursuit of truth and knowledge. It entails that faculty members and lecturers must be free to express ideas or facts related to the subject matter being taught in their classrooms — even when these ideas and facts are controversial or sometimes proven to be wrong — without being targeted for punishment.

This freedom comes with a set of responsibilities that includes fostering the intellectual growth of students. We are thus also committed to our students’ search for knowledge and truth in their classrooms. This means striving to maintain an atmosphere that encourages students to question ideas, debate evidence and present alternative viewpoints — also without penalty.

These commitments are not always easy to balance. Some ideas, whether true or false, can be hurtful. Some facts, even if verified with the best available evidence, will inflame passions and fuel controversy. The powers, real or perceived, that others hold over us can make us fearful to question, debate or present alternative viewpoints.

We have shown time and again that our commitments both to academic freedom and to a culture of tolerance and respect can coexist. In our view, this is one of the central factors that make our University of California campus so very special.

Chancellor Dorothy Leland
Provost Tom Peterson

It’s unclear what they mean regarding “fostering an academic environment where the search for truth and knowledge can occur without fear of retribution.” Retribution? If that is in reference to students recording the lecture and releasing it to the media — perhaps if a lesson funded by taxpayers cannot stand up to a little public scrutiny, it should be retooled.

Interesting this line: “The powers, real or perceived, that others hold over us can make us fearful to question, debate or present alternative viewpoints.”

That is often how conservative, Republican and libertarian students feel — fearful to question, debate or present alternative viewpoints — as their educations are hijacked by professors who push agendas.

Here’s another thing that makes a campus special: Educating students instead of indoctrinating them.

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