October 20, 2007

U of I's Faculty

Iowa City is known as the most liberal city in Iowa so it should come as no surprise that the city’s largest employer is predominately infested with Democrats. Mark Moyar, a professor at the Marine Corp. University writes at NRO that the U of I History Department in particular is completely staffed by Democrats and because he is of the Conservative persuasion he was passed over for a position at the University. As I read this I got the impression that the article had a little tone of sour grapes. Mr. Moyar is an academic and should not be surprised that these things occur. Unfortunately being a conservative isn't a protected interest group in this state’s anti-discrimination laws (maybe it should be).
As a student at the College of Liberal Arts', (even the name should be a clue) I would have to say that for the most part the four History professors I have had my first semester have been objective with only hint of liberalism. I say that only because the choice of topics for the first essay assignment in one course was an interpretation of either socialism from the view of Marx and his infamous Manifesto, or how Josephine Butler addresses feminism in 19th century society. Even the TAs, which you would expect to be the young idealistic firebrands have been subdued in their indoctrination techniques.
Of course there were the occasional veiled references to how the capitalist white man exploited the world, killed its people, and stole their land, but I never had any professor come right out and say that as Americans "We Suck!" like occurred at Tall Corn College and Technical Institute and that’s a relief.

Education Update: I have made it through the dreaded midterms and have submitted at least one short paper (6 pages) in three of my classes. Some grades should be forthcoming this week. The fourth class consisted of getting familiar with the various arguments about WWI and now the rest of the semester will be dedicated to a topic of my choosing and a 15 page research paper.

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