Arizona may be the home of John McCain and Barry Goldwater, but according to David Horowitz, a popular conservative author and activist, it’s still a stronghold of “”radical liberal ideologues.”” At least in the universities.
“”Either students are getting older since I was in school, or there’s not much support for this talk,”” were the opening remarks Horowitz gave last night to an auditorium filled mostly with older community members but mixed with students, professors, and the University of Arizona Police Department.
In his book, “”One-Party Classroom,”” Horowitz cites the UA as one of the country’s leading centers of liberal ideology.
The topic of Horowitz’s lecture, hosted by College Republicans in the Kiva Auditorium of the Education Building, was the state of American universities, which he called “”pretty sad,”” and the increasing presence of “”radical leftist ideologues”” in university classrooms.
Horowitz leveled personal attacks at Kari McBride, professor of women’s studies, and V. Spike Peterson, professor of political science. He also called the departments of women’s studies and African American studies “”political parties for the left,”” designed to “”indoctrinate students into radical ideologies.””
“”(The department of women’s studies) has absolutely nothing to do with academic scholarly inquiry,”” Horowitz said, adding that courses in this department are “”indoctrination courses”” that teach “”intellectual garbage.””
Peterson, who attended the event, was visibly shaken while speaking with a reporter following the event.
“”He has demonstrated that he does not follow any kind of scientific objective methodology,”” Peterson said. “”What I find really offensive in this presentation is his disparagement of people in a way that I would never even remotely consider talking about, especially the people I disagree with.””
Peterson said that Horowitz would have to have been in the classroom to justify his claims.
“”It’s insulting, I think, to the students and to the College Republicans, to assume that they don’t feel that they can speak up in class, that they don’t have the sense to discern a refutable argument,”” Peterson said. “”Most of all, I personally feel that he’s making these quite malicious accusations without one piece of evidence in his book about what goes on in the classroom which is where he is accusing us of indoctrinating students.””
Some students felt differently.
“”Mr. Horowitz did an excellent job,”” said Ry Ellison, business management senior and president of College Republicans. “”I haven’t experienced (these problems) as bad as some students have, but I’ve been around a lot of students in the political science department and I know from their experiences that this type of indoctrination is frequently occurring on this campus.””
Ellison added that Horowitz “”absolutely”” did a good job representing the views of Republicans on campus.
“”I think it was a good speech with a lot of very valid points, points that I could relate to,”” Joey Chadwick, a finance senior at the event, said.
Nevertheless, not everyone in the audience remained convinced.
“”He’s attempting to indoctrinate while fighting potential indoctrineers,”” history junior Andrew Cameron said. “”He misquoted numerous points in history. He’s willing to lie, he’s willing to obfuscate the truth, and he’s no better than those he professes to embattle. It’s not about fairness in the classroom, it’s about conservativism in the classroom.””
