Intellectual diversity at the University – It’s about to be cool once again.

There has been some interesting discussion under the post I did about how the goofy liberal views of a couple of law professors might flavor how legislators look at the request to put 1.2 million into the school to keep things running at our state’s law school in the face of enrollment cuts and poor bar passage rates.

One commenter noted “At any institution of higher education there will be differing viewpoints, and we should encourage differing viewpoints.”

Myself, and others certainly agree.

In particular, incoming State Senator Jim Bolin, a retired teacher agrees. He agrees very much.

And as I discussed with him yesterday, he’s going to bring back a proposal that narrowly missed passage in 2006 when liberals (Republicans and Democrats) in the State Senate teamed up to kill a bill that had already passed the House to ensure that differing viewpoints were welcome in our institutions of higher learning:

2006’s House Bill 1222 had strong support in the State House – which passed it 42-26, but narrowly failed in the Senate on a 15-18 split.  The idea at the time was that the Board of Regents would report to the legislature on an annual basis the steps the institutions are taking to ensure intellectual diversity.

As opposed to being fed a steady diet of any one philosophical viewpoint, Universities would actually need to pay heed to the viewpoints of others, and report to the legislature on their efforts to not marginalize them.

At the time, Regents – via their Executive Director Tad Perry – opposed this report on the free exchange of ideas. But now, coming at a time when students are fed a steady and unabating diet of liberalism from the classroom podium, they are attacked for their views, and self-proclaimed Social Justice Warriors are stifiling free speech, it’s very much a current topic.

And with Bolin’s planned reintroduction of the measure, one well worth the time that legislators would ask of the universities to ensure that free speech on campus is not infringed upon, and along those lines what they’re doing towards those efforts.

Our tax dollars go towards our institutions of higher learning. A simple report asking about what Universities do to ensure free speech is a pretty minor thing to ask in return.

Unless they somehow have a problem with it. Free speech, that is.

25 thoughts on “Intellectual diversity at the University – It’s about to be cool once again.”

  1. If they can’t agree to have more conservative viewpoints in the classrooms due to actively recruiting and obtaining mainly socialist/leftwing/progressive profs, then encourage your kids to go elsewhere; the public universities, even in states like South Dakota, are bastions of anti-American, socialist propaganda, and we shouldn’t be supporting them if we actually believe in freedom, the Constitution, and actual American values (not what Obummer calls American ideals). I intend to save up for my kids’ post-secondary education and do all I can to encourage them to go to a private, conservative, preferably Christian college or university.

    1. “anti-American, socialist propaganda….” Wow! you really need to stop reading Breitbart and watching Fox. Even Megyn couldn’t handle it anymore…..

      1. Truth hurts, don’t it “Winston”? Did you go to a university in South Dakota or did you just settle for your GED? I called it what it is, and if you don’t like it, I don’t really care as your opinion matters not to me.

  2. So if this measure passes, then won’t it require the B School at the U to teach socialism, fascism, and communism on an equal footing with capitalism?…… You are opening up a can of worms with this idea…..Oh my goodness….

  3. Oh, and the Beacom School of Business at the U will have to change its name to the “Vermillion School of Economics,” if this measure passes, as well.

  4. Looks to me like higher education ridicules different view points. Just look at their Twitter feeds and Facebook pages. High time we start rooting these people out. Great bill Senator Bolin!

    1. But if you “root” these people out, won’t you be destroying one of the many viewpoints which makes up the meaning of “diversity.”

      Maybe Commander-in-Chief Trump can help you guys with book burnings, too…

      1. What’s the matter? Afraid their views won’t stand up? I’m ok with rooting out their viewpoints, just like they are ok with rooting out mine. Tit for tat is just fine with them, and with me too. Onward to battle!

        1. “Onward to battle,” exactly! Let the market place prevail on thought. Don’t use a measure like this to force thought. Often conservatives advocate equal opportunity over equal result, but with this measure the Right has become an advocate of “result.”

          Oh, and your “Tit for tat” comment must mean that you have no intentions to achieve “diversity”…… Even with the smoke from the book burnings, one can now visualize your true intent with this measure…

          1. Interesting that the left is so entwined in result when it comes to grants of “opportunity” based on identities… but not so much when it comes to the market place of ideas. What are you afraid of Winston? Feeling the heat from differing notions of “diversity” being wedged in your ivory tower?

            1. Ivory tower? I could only wish. I am merely a carpenter, who knows you should measure twice and cut once… And it is the cut that really matters because it is the final result…

              The problem of your logic is that this intellectual menace which you suggest exists on our colleges and universities today is merely the product of opportunity where the result is the right answer, but not always right in a political sense, however, for some. And you assume the debate has never been ensued, but it has, but you just do not like the result.

      2. Would you at least agree that there should be at least a reasonable number of conservative voices in academia to counterpoint the socialist viewpoint, or is that too much to ask?

        1. First you guys went from “opportunity” to “result” and now you are all asking for guotas?……. Oh, this is getting good…. real good….

  5. Winston, if you think Business Schools are filled with Capitalist professors, you are gravely mistaken.

      1. Instead of your “intelligent” reply, if you think Troy is wrong, why don’t you come up with some statistics that prove him otherwise; probably because you can’t.

        1. I don’t keep lists like that. I just asked if a list exists to substantiate the claim. Absence the list, it is one person’s word against another, but you are requiring a higher bar for one of them, aren’t you?

          1. I went to the USD school of business. Most Econ professors were left of center like the late Wymar who wrote letters to the editor. He was from Germany. Winston, get your facts before you chirp. Maybe just find a local liberal blog to reinforce your lack of understanding of economics. I’ll pay for a ticket to Venezuela for you😹

  6. Seems pretty vague. What is intellectual diversity? Does this open schools up to claims that Biology classrooms that are teaching evolution and not creationism are failing the intellectual diversity requirement? As someone else said, I hope they are careful and understand the implications.

    1. Perhaps “intellectual diversity” means a mix of the bright and the less bright or better yet the right idea and the wrong idea. Except with this measure, often the bright idea will not be “Right” enough, thus allowing the wrong idea or less bright idea to prevail even though it is not literally right. although, maybe politically right for some regardless of their brightness….

  7. Winston, you seem to have gotten a few of the words in the wrong place. Let me correct it for you.

    What prevents having all the bright ideas is they will not be “left” enough, thus allowing the wrong idea or less bright idea to prevail even though it is not literally right.

    With regard to a list, I don’t have one. But, I’m a graduate of a business school and virtually all of my “macro” classes were taught by left-wingers. One of my daughters was a graduate of a business school and her favorite pastime was to send me “nut statements” from her socialist professors. And, I’ve been hiring and working with business school graduates for 30+ years. You can actually graduate from a business school and not be able to articulate the merits of being profitable.

  8. Troy,

    In accepting my logic with a change of words you have somehow become an advocate of result over opportunity, although, yet a conservative at the same time.

    As far as your last paragraph is concerned, are these B schools that you mention potentially under the control of this measure or merely examples of convenience outside of it?

    Oh, I forgot, you think that our B school at the U is a great bastion of liberalism, don’t you? But certainly not in a Friedman sense, however.

    All America needs is more supply-side teachings in our colleges and universities to help with our tax base…. Yah right, such an idea is laughable at best or should we say it is laughter or is that Laffer? What is the difference, I must ask?

  9. Why don’t we just divide up all the legislators and have them patrol the schools and universities. They can lecture in the hallway and ensure everyone uses the correct restroom. They can hand out abortion literature and bibles at the same time. It sure would help if they had the rule of law behind them to make sure students and women make the correct decisions. This would ensure Utopia in South Dakota. We have the smartest legislatures on the planet and need to get them out more to ensure compliance.

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