Virtual Commons - Bridgewater State University

Plenary 4: Classroom, Campus, Civic Life and Culture: The Battleground of Political Correctness in Pathways of Discourse

Moakley Auditorium

Ideologies have ever been part of the life of the academy. Tension among ideologies may well have become more pronounced in the latter decades of the previous and the first decade of the present century. It is alleged that college professors are inordinately liberal and Left leaning. Forces on the Right push back against what they believe are excesses of campus leaders and professoriate – speech codes, liberal bias and outright politicization in the classroom, brain washing students, stifling free debate, discourse, and speech, anti-harassment measures – and bemoan the university as an institution no longer capable of maintaining its stature and beliefs as a key foundation of society and culture. Where might the "truth" reside? Is this all Sturm and Drang? Or are there kernels of concern that must be addressed and maybe countered? This roundtable will toss around these and related matters of concern to our work, classrooms, and intellectual discourse and engagement.