Morrow says he'll press fight for 'student bill of rights'

By: BRUCE KAUFFMAN - Staff Writer | Saturday, April 23, 2005 12:46 AM PDT ∞

SAN MARCOS ---- Undaunted by this week's defeat of his proposal to protect college students from being punished for thinking freely in class, a state senator from Oceanside said Friday that he intends to reintroduce the bill by January.

Sen. Bill Morrow, a Republican, said his measure, called the student bill of rights, is not dead. Though he might amend it, Morrow said he will take advantage of Senate rules that allow him to bring the bill back during this legislative session.

The aim, he said, is to keep students from being muzzled or punished with low grades for taking positions in class that challenge the ideology of professors.

"There are enough of these instances occurring that they should not be swept under the rug," the senator said.

On Wednesday, the Senate Education Committee killed Morrow's Senate Bill 5 by a 6-4 vote. In April 2004, the committee killed a similar bill introduced by Morrow in a 9-2 vote.

Faculty groups and the student government president at Cal State San Marcos expressed relief at Wednesday's committee vote. Cal State President Karen Haynes said the bill was not needed.

Said Jackie Trischman, a biochemist who chairs the faculty governing body, the Academic Senate: "The faculty as a whole did not see this as a workable means of addressing the problems that he (Morrow) brought up. ... The bill would say basically that the faculty lose all of their rights to have any say about their course content. That's the implication that we strongly oppose."

Trischman said the faculty's concern is to foster a "welcome learning environment."

Lance Newman, an English professor who serves as secretary of the campus chapter of the California Faculty Association, said the measure was part of a campaign to close the debate on those who don't conform to the viewpoint of people in power. The faculty association is the bargaining unit for the CSU teachers.

"The key question for me and my colleagues is, 'Why professors?' " Newman said. "Why do the professors, among all the people who speak in public, need to be legislated and controlled? Why not journalists, why not politicians?"

University President Haynes said in a statement, "Universities are built around the exchange of ideas. I think our students have ample opportunity to express their ideas and to challenge ideas presented by other students and by our faculty."

Manal Yamout, president of Associated Students Inc., the student government organization, said that many campuses, including Cal State San Marcos, have effective grievance procedures that guard against arbitrary grading or the stifling of student views in the classroom.

"Policies should be made on a campus-to-campus level," Yamout said. "Many other campuses also already have grievance policies. ... This bill is unnecessary."

An analysis by the Education Committee staff said the measure reflects a movement throughout the nation by people who see colleges and universities as "bastions of political correctness" that are "hostile to the free exchange of ideas."

The bill that Morrow proposed would have banned grades from being affected by how a professor feels about a student's political or religious beliefs. It would have required grading solely on the basis of "reasoned answers" by students and their "appropriate knowledge of the course of study," along with their attendance, class participation, and other "generally accepted" grading criteria.

The measure had called for reading lists to reflect "diverse viewpoints"; for faculty not to use classrooms as venues for political, ideological, religious or "anti-religious" doctrine; and for campus speakers to be chosen to promote the "principles of academic freedom and ... intellectual pluralism."

Morrow, who debated the measure in a public forum on the San Marcos campus in March, told a crowd of about 300, "If you are harassed and harangued, you can't learn."

A so-called two-year bill, Morrow's measure can be reintroduced early in 2006 because the Education Committee granted what he said was the normal courtesy of reconsidering the bill.

Contact staff writer Bruce Kauffman at (760) 761-4410 or bkauffman@nctimes.com.

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