To hear the MAS point of view on important and controversial topics, please contact the MAS President: Professor Ken Doyle, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Minnesota. KenDoyle@umn.edu, 612.624.5341.

Here are a few positions on recent topics. We should mention that these are really Professor Doyle’s personal positions, and have not been voted on by either the MAS Board or the Membership.

Ward Churchill. You fight bad speech with good speech, not with suppression or sanctions. It just kills me to write this, because I think the guy is such a jerk: But if I’m going to be consistent about free expression, I have to support Mr. Churchill’s right to say what he wants to say, and I have to challenge the investigation into his productivity, competence, and integrity because that investigation is fundamentally, in my opinion, an effort to punish Mr. Churchill for his what he says and how he says it. It’s fruit of the poisoned tree. I believe it was Evelyn Beatrice Hall (not Voltaire) who said, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” KOD

Student Evaluations of College Teachers. One hates to repudiate one’s own early work, but I have to challenge the books and articles I produced in the 1970s on student ratings of instruction. Maybe I’m just more of a curmudgeon than I used to be, or maybe I’m more experienced, but it seems to me that all the dangers we worried about back then have come to haunt us – superficial interpretation by personnel committees and administrators, retaliation against professors who demand hard work or give low grades or espouse politically incorrect ideologies, the substitution of popularity for substance and rigor. Students have a right to have their opinions heard and professors ought to listen to them; but those opinions should not be the sole, nor even the principal, data for evaluating teachers. Hmmmm. I guess that is what I said in the 70s! KOD

Reducing Language Requirements. How can colleges and universities promote global studies and in the same breath eliminate or reduce foreign-language requirements? KOD

Education versus Indoctrination. I don’t have any hard data tell how widespread indoctrination is in Minnesota’s colleges and universities, but there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest that there are serious pockets of the problem in many institutions. I vigorously oppose any infringement on academic freedom, but freedom includes students’ rights to be exposed, in an even-handed manner, to the full range of views or important social, political, and economic issues. Explicitly or implicitly forcing students to adhere to the professor’s or administrator’s political values is an egregious violation of academic responsibility. KOD.

Ahmadinejad’s visit to Columbia. As always, one fights bad speech not with repression but with good speech, so – my many colleagues’ views to the contrary notwithstanding – it was appropriate to give the titular head of foreign state a platform to present his views. But Mr. Bollinger’s rude and hostile introduction was beneath him and gave powerful ammunition to anti-American media around the world. Would it have been so difficult to introduce the speaker civilly, let him speak without interruptions, then have a panel of experts critique and question him? This speaker’s own words would have exposed him, without the embarrassment to a great university.

By the way, what become of Columbia students who shouted down conservative speakers recently? Maybe I just didn’t notice them trying to shout down Mr. Ahmadinejad. Or maybe Columbia authorities protect some speakers more than others.

As the new joke goes, “what can Mahmoud Ahmadinejad do that Lorry Summer can’t? Speak at an American university.”