Conservative activist David Horowitz's 10-month-old brain-child, the Academic Bill of Rights, is on the agenda in several state legislatures, fueling national scrutiny and debate at Penn.
The Georgia Senate voted 41-5 yesterday to pass the bill, which proponents say will protect conservative viewpoints -- which are often in the minority -- and foster intellectual diversity on college campuses.
Similar legislation was withdrawn from the Colorado legislature a few days ago, following an agreement by the University of Colorado and three other state colleges to put into practice some of the bill's tenets.
"We basically got everything we wanted" in Colorado, said Sarah Dogan, national campus director of the advocacy group Students for Academic Freedom.
An offshoot of Horowitz's Center for the Study of Popular Culture, SAF currently has chapters at 130 college campuses nationwide.
SAF is leading the movement to guarantee protection of conservative students' opinions by establishing set standards and a grievance process.
The movement has generated some controversy.
Among the common criticisms is a belief that state legislatures should not interfere with the intellectual climate of academic institutions.
Horowitz called that argument against his proposal "entirely spurious" because the same people who oppose regulation of intellectual diversity "support legislation of skin diversity."
However, he said that the voluntary application of his Academic Bill of Rights in Colorado universities is preferable to state-mandated regulations.
"It's going to be enacted, in my view, in the proper way," Horowitz said of the recent decisions in Colorado.
At Penn -- where an application for a SAF chapter is pending approval by the Student Activities Council -- there is some disagreement over whether conservative students need protection and whether the Academic Bill of Rights could be fair and effective.
Vice Chairwoman of the College Republicans Stephanie Steward praised the bill for assuring a "pluralism of viewpoints" and said that minority viewpoints are "not always treated fairly" at Penn.
She recalled being downgraded by a teaching assistant for, she believed, her political views.
College Democrats President Rich Eisenberg took issue with SAF's proposed grievance process for students alleging ideological discrimination.
"This isn't a matter of academic freedom, which obviously we support," he said.
Eisenberg added that the Academic Bill of Rights would make professors afraid to share their opinions for fear of offending conservative students.
It would "allow students free reign to stigmatize professors they don't like," Eisenberg added.
Horowitz summarized what he believes is the real reason for criticism of the bill -- liberal wariness of his controversial national agenda, particularly his advocacy campaign against slavery reparations.
"I'll tell you their problem with it -- that I'm proposing it," he said.
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