Shooting Yourself In the Foot Mouth

The Rocky Mountain News reports today that a �Student Bill of Rights� was reported out of committee on a 6�5 party line vote, speeded on its way by a �verbal sparring match between a professor and a student near the end of a long legislative session that quickly became Exhibit A for supporters� of the bill. (Link thanks to Linda Seebach)

Supporters say it will promote diversity of opinion on campus and prevent discrimination against politically conservative students. Opponents say it will chill academic freedom and steer teachers from controversial topics.

The quarrel broke out just as the committee had finished taking nearly three hours of testimony.

That’s when Ian Van Buskirk, a University of Colorado student who supports the bill, told the committee, “We’ve seen how the grievance procedure works. Let’s send a chilling effect to these faculty members.”

Moments later, just out of earshot of the panel, Van Buskirk and Tim Gould, a philosophy professor at Metropolitan State College, got into a confrontation.

Gould later said he told Van Buskirk, “Send a chilling message and I’ll see you in court.”

Van Buskirk claimed Gould told him, “Send a chilling message and I’ll sue your (expletive deleted) in court.”

Rep. Keith King, R-Colorado Springs, said he witnessed the encounter and described Gould as getting within an inch of the student’s face.

“I think the very reason why this bill is necessary is what we just witnessed today,” King said. “We’ve had an inappropriate demonstration of conduct from a professor to a student.”

CU President Betsy Hoffman, who canceled a trip to Washington in order to testify, told the panel that the bill �bill sends a message to the faculty that the legislature does not trust or respect them.� She urged aggrieved students to use the university�s grievance procedures, but students testified that �with the leftist sway of the University of Colorado at Boulder� that process could not be trusted.

According to Denver Post columnist Jim Spenser�s report,

For a Harvard Ph.D., Tim Gould acted pretty stupid Wednesday afternoon. The Metropolitan State College philosophy professor got nose-to-nose with a conservative undergraduate in front of a legislative committee considering whether Colorado needs to pass a law to protect college students from liberal bias.

As members of the House education committee watched, Gould gave the Republican-dominated General Assembly the ammunition it needs to impose a legislative gag order on teachers at state colleges and universities.

Whether or not this bill is a �gag order� is subject to debate, but Spencer is probably right that the

professor�s childish display … was the issue that committee member Keith King and bill sponsor Shawn Mitchell seized on as the proposal to protect conservative students from intimidation by liberal teachers moved to the House floor on a 6-5, party-line vote….

“If he behaves that way in a hearing room,” said Mitchell, “imagine how powerful he feels in his classroom.”