Letter to the Editor: Academic Freedom on Campus

From an e-mail correspondent:

Professor McAdams,

First, though I doubt you would remember me, I am a 1990 graduate of Marquette’s Political Science Program. . . . Since then I taught for Milwaukee Public Schools as a Middle School teacher for 6 years, but because I went through Army ROTC while at Marquette I was able to switch professions in 1998 to Active Duty. Sadly, the reason for changing was that the day I stepped out of the classroom and into a uniform I doubled my income (though that is a different topic of conversation). To make a long story short, I have since then taught ROTC at UW-Madison (where I received a Masters Degree in Public Affairs) for three years, and am now the Commander of the UW-Stevens Point ROTC Department.

It is for this reason that I am responding to your blog. Having been a student and an Assistant Professor of Military Science at UW-Madison, I was continually struck by the open hostility to ROTC at Madison. I still remember when Donna Shalala was the Chancellor at Madison and brought the entire faculty together to vote on ROTC remaining on campus, fully knowing that as a land grant institution she was mandated to keep ROTC.

The vote was 63% for shutting the ROTC programs at Madison. When I was teaching there, it was not “healthy?” to wear my uniform across campus because of the response I would receive. Additionally, when we tried to put either letters to the editor or advertising in the Cardinal or other campus papers we were always denied access. Then, I would hear back from the cadets that if they wore the uniform to class, other students would make comments on why anyone would ever want to “learn to kill people for a living?”

It was my experience there that the faculty actively educates the underclassmen on how to think about specific subjects, and though this is not universal across the campus, there is no one who would be able to say that the education is not biased. This fact was a steady topic of conversation among our cadets. It is important to note here that my experience was not based solely on hearsay. I personally had faculty approach me and ask derisively “What are you doing here?”

I would like to compare/contrast this to my experience at Marquette and now at UW-Stevens Point. At Marquette, though there were individual students who would on occasion make negative comments, I always felt that the faculty as a whole was either neutral or supportive to cadets in ROTC. At Stevens Point, I have noted a similar attitude.

The reason I wish to bring out this contrast is that your article seems to point towards a certain universal oppression of free speech at Universities, but I would argue that the most damaging incidents occur by the indoctrination of students while they are still forming their outlook on the world by professors whom they trust at specific institutions.

When ideas from any side are dismissed without real debate or analysis because they originate from a suspect source (the government, the Right, ROTC...) then the development of students analytical capacity is stunted. I know that UW-Madison’s leadership believes that it is a bastion for free thought, and that it teaches personal responsibility for the information one accepts as real, the reality may be very different because they do not really see what is going on in the liberal arts classrooms forming the central curriculum of the University. What I saw was the campus wide results. It would be hard to convince me that these students arrived on campus with a predisposition to hating their Army and towards Officership and military service in it. Those ideas are learned and taught.

My conclusion is simple, oppression of free speech is not universal on campuses around the country, but is often most prominent in those places where people would most like to think they are free. UW-Madison is one example of this.

Thank you for the education that you helped to give me at Marquette, and I will continue to read your blog as a fine source of thought provoking informative editorials.

Respectfully,

Jeffrey Kurka
Lieutenant Colonel US Army
Professor of Military Science UW-Stevens Point

We are delighted to hear from a former student, and entirely agree with his observations.

When we blog about intolerance and censorship in academia nationally, and about cases at Marquette, we don’t mean to imply that Marquette is worse than other institutions. Indeed, since Marquette is more conservative than lots of other universities, it’s also more tolerant and open to diverse points of view.

Of course, there are places on campus where politically correct intolerance prevails, but they are pretty much the places (humanities departments, education, victim studies programs) where intolerance prevails throughout academia generally.

Where ROTC is concerned, we have blogged about how anti-ROTC protests have been poorly attended and failed to find a sympathetic audience among administrators or even the usual suspects among student activists.

So while Marquette could be better, it could be worse too.

Gaggle of Aging Leftists Demonstrates Against Marquette ROTC

Check out a first person account from Brian Collar here.

An interesting observation: Muslim students were not in evidence. We have confirmation from Asmah Mallick, President of the Muslim Student Association, that an announcement of the demonstration was sent to the membership.

But apparently Muslim students at Marquette aren’t that interested in attacking ROTC.

That’s good news.

[Update]

Joe Kastner took photos of both the protest and the counter protest. He left the protest fairly early, however, so things might have looked different 30 or 45 minutes later.

Kastner also reports seeing no Muslim students.

[Further Update]

Milwaukee’s Channel 12 reported on this protest, although the photo on their web site casts doubt on the newsworthiness of the event.

A very small, forlorn group of protesters stood on the steps on the old gym, in which the ROTC is housed.

Sign Petition Supporting ROTC at Marquette

In the face of a planned demonstration by local leftists demanding a shut-down of ROTC at Marquette, Brian Collar of the GOP3.COM blog has set up an online petition supporting the officer training program.

The link to the petition is here.

Of course most conservatives will be happy to sign it, but we think a fair number of liberals will too.

Consider, for example, this comment by a liberal poster on the GOP3.COM blog.

ROTC won’t be shut down and everyone knows it. It gives too much to the school for being there and it’s far too helpful for students who need it.

It’s not the ROTC’s fault that the government is sending soldiers to fight an unjust war. I’m pretty sure it’s Congress’s fault for approving the insane “First Strike” law and not invoking their power to end the war, when ending the stinkin’ war was 99% of the reason anti-war Democrats were elected to congress last year.

That’s the right spirit. Feel free to disagree with the Iraq War if you want, but don’t try to stifle a program that has large benefits for both students and the university.

If you don’t want to serve in the military, by all means don’t join ROTC. But have a little respect for those who do.

Marquette Leftists, Muslim Students To Demonstrate Against ROTC

GOP3.COM broke this story.

A coalition of campus leftists and Muslim students will demonstrate against Marquette’s participation in the ROTC program this Friday.

The demonstration has been supported by both the Muslim Students Association and the student group J.U.S.T.I.C.E. which have sent e-mails encouraging participation to their members.

Neither, however, is an “official” sponsor of the event.

Apparently the Casa Maria Catholic Worker organization, and an activist associated with that organization (Patrick Kennelly) originated the idea.

The organizers claim:

We will gather from 12 noon-5 pm on Friday October 26 in front of the Marquette University Department of Military Science at 1508 W. Clybourn Ave -- which recruits and trains young men and women to participate in what many recognize as an immoral, illegal and unjust war in Iraq. We will seek the removal of this military/financial complex from this campus.

The protesters then promise to march around various campus locations, and demand to speak to Fr. Wild.

Marquette resisted demands to kick ROTC off campus during the anti-war hysteria of the late 60s and early 70s. The University is now run by a much more liberal bunch of administrators, but even so we doubt that demonstrations like this -- or even a sustained movement -- could possibly undermine the program.

Brian Collar, of GOP3.COM, promises to organize a counter-protest.

We expect the demonstration to consist of a modest-sized gaggle of the usual suspects. And we don’t know whether the counter protest will even come off.

Marquette Alum, Iraq Soldier: What the Media Ignores

From the Racine Journal Times, an interview with Lt. Col. Robert Kaiser, a Marquette alumnus who has served his country all over the world, including Somalia, Haiti, Kosovo, Iraq and Germany.

Some excerpts:

Journal Times -- What do you see there that we don’t get to see?

Kaiser -- As the division engineer for the 3rd Infantry Division, I actually get to see a lot that doesn’t make the daily headlines back home, especially in the area of reconstruction. We spend a lot of effort in the Marine Division working reconstruction projects in support of the Iraqi people. Our division works in the area south of Baghdad, which is predominately rural and has a mix of Sunni and Shia populations. Their needs are no different from ours back home — they need clean drinking water, electricity for their neighborhoods, schools for their children and health clinics for the people.

These are the kind of projects we have assisted the Iraqi people with, as are all of the coalition forces throughout Iraq. These projects are essential and really make a difference at the local level, but they just don’t make the headlines. A great example of this is the Mahmoudiyah Market Rebuild project that was supported by the Commando Brigade, which is the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y. Mahmoudiyah is a city with approximately 120,000 Iraqis, and the market area was severely damaged by a vehicle-borne IED.

Markets are central to the Iraqi way of life, and this market also served as a primary economic development area for the town. The Commando Brigade supported the rebuilding project in conjunction with the local government, and now the Mahmoudiyah Market is up and running. Stories like this happen all the time, but you just don’t hear about them compared to the car bombings. . . .

Another area I see that you really don’t hear much about is the change in cooperation between the locals and coalition forces now that we have a more sustained presence in Iraqi population centers. This is just from my perspective, but there seems to be an increase in the amount and the quality of help local Iraqis are now providing U.S. forces in our area. There is a link between cooperation between coalition forces and the local population and the number of projects we assist them with, and we have had a noticeable increase in the number of reconstruction projects pass through my office in the past several weeks.

The Iraqis want the same things that you and I want: a safe and secure place to live where they can raise their families. This is from my personal view, but it looks like we are doing better at providing that safe and secure environment with the surge, but only time will tell. Having said that, nothing is easy in this country!

Indeed!

But we are more inclined to believe what we hear from a soldier on the ground than what we hear from the media.