NoIndoctrination.org - View Listing

[Help NoIndoctrination.org - Donate Now Through Network For Good]

Warning: Postings are only opinions. (See Terms of Service)

Note: Although the postings appear to be anonymous, NoIndoctrination.org knows the posters' names. We communicate with the posters before putting their comments online. We also research each posting and ask for corroborating material when appropriate.

Record for NoIndoctrination.org entry #1161.

Pitzer College

Nov. 12, 2007

http://www.pitzer.edu

Course: : Various First-Year Seminar Classes

Course Catalog Description: The First-Year Seminar program encourages the development of each student’s potential for becoming a more literate person who thinks, reads, writes, and speaks with competence and discrimination. Techniques used in the seminars include close analysis of texts and learning to write personal reflections, critiques, arguments, and research papers. First-Year Seminars are writing intensive courses and are designed to fulfill the Written Expression educational objective of the College. Each First-Year Seminar has a different instructor, topic, and body of reading. A series of common meetings, field trips, and receptions attended by all first-year students will encourage reflection and discussion among the students, instructors, and other members of the Pitzer community. Enrollment is required of all first-year students in the fall semester. Enrollment in each seminar is limited.

The course descriptions for Prof. Depa Basu's "Youth and Popular Culture," Prof. Edith Vasquez's "Lost (and Found) in Translation," and Prof. Jessica Lawless' "Censorship in America" seminars can be found at http://www.pitzer.edu/academics/curriculum/pdf/07_Course_Catalog.pdf (pages 15-18). Page 104 describes Prof. Edith Vasquez's "Survey of American Literature I." Professors Depa Basu and Halford Fairchild's "Introduction to Black Studies" course is described at http://pzacad.pitzer.edu/~hfairchi/courses/Fall2007/IntroBlackStudiesF2007.htm.

Professor: Various

Required? Yes, for all students

Lecture Bias: N/A

Comments: N/A

Discussion Bias: N/A

Comments: N/A

Readings Bias: N/A

Comments: N/A

General Comments: A mass emailing “on behalf of OPR Pitzer Office of Public Relations” went out to the Claremont Colleges (Claremont Graduate, Claremont McKenna, Pitzer, Scripps, Pomona) to advertise an upcoming Pitzer event, “TRUTH IN A TIME OF LIES AND CENSORSHIP.” A student who received this unsolicited email found it bothersome and forwarded it to NoIndoctrination.org. The advertisement can be viewed at http://www.pitzer.edu/news_center/events/emails/truth.html

DESCRIPTION OF THE ADVERTISEMENT (should the above link become inactive or if there is difficulty reading the small print):

“TRUTH IN A TIME OF LIES AND CENSORSHIP” is being held Thursday, Nov. 15, 2007 2:45 p.m. in the Pitzer College Avery Auditorium. The advertisement includes three posters, here briefly described:
1. “Wanted for Crimes Against Humanity.” Two pictures of Donald Rumsfeld with the captions “Crimes of War” and “Crimes of Torture”
2. “FREE THE JENA 6!” "Black students sit under a 'whites-only' tree at Jena High School in Louisiana..." "Racist students hang nooses on the tree..." "Six Black students face decades in prison for standing up against this racial outrage..." “DROP ALL THE CHARGES” [A larger version of this poster can be viewed at http://rwor.org/a/102/free-jena-6-en.html]
3. “STOP THE ICE RAIDS” [ICE = Immigration and Customs Enforcement]"This July, the Bush Regime’s head of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, declared that the government crackdown on undocumented immigrants is 'gonna get ugly.' 'Gonna get ugly' means armed ICE (Immigration and Custom Enforcement) agents carrying out Gestapo raids in workplaces and neighborhoods to arrest and deport immigrants. It means tearing apart of families; terrorizing of entire communities; concentration camps for captured immigrants; armed vigilantes hunting down immigrants like modern-day slave catchers; hundreds of people a year losing their lives attempting to cross the border." Bottom of poster: "October 22 - Join with people across the country in the National Day of Protest to STOP Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation." [A larger version of this poster can be viewed at http://revcom.us/i/104/stop-ice-raids-en.pdf]

The advertisement states that “Revolutionary journalists speak about current events of the day—the Jena 6 and racism against Black people, Immigration and Mexico, and the Middle East.”
The speakers for the event are listed as follows:
“Michael Slate --host of Beneath the Surface on KPFK radio, will talk about Hurricane Katrina and the Jena 6.”
“Luciente Zamora -- reported from Oaxaca, Mexico on the rebellion in Mexico in 2006. She accepted an award at Project Censored for Revolution’s coverage of the Mexican elections last year. [Revolution is the "newspaper, voice of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA." (http://rwor.org/)]
“Larry Everest—author of Oil, Power, and Empire will speak on the Middle East, and the danger of US war on Iran.”

At the bottom of the advertisement is the following: "Sponsored by Pitzer College Campus Life Committee in conjunction with Pitzer First Year Seminar classes: ‘Youth and Popular Culture,’ ‘Lost (and Found) in Translation,’ ‘Censorship in America,’ and other classes: ‘Survey of American Literature’ and ‘Introduction to Black Studies’."

[Note: “TRUTH IN A TIME OF LIES AND CENSORSHIP” is scheduled for a Thursday at 2:45, which is when the required first-year seminar classes meet. This, coupled with "sponsorship," strongly suggests the event is part of the required classes.]

*************************************************************
NOINDOCTRINATION.ORG's CONCERNS AND QUESTIONS Check out our update at the bottom of this post.

NoIndoctrination.org believes these “revolutionary journalists” have a perfect right to speak at Pitzer. However, we find it troubling that required Pitzer classes are listed as "sponsoring" something that can only be described as a political event with a radical complexion. NoIndoctrination.org wonders how the "classes" decided to sponsor this “truth” event. Obviously the instructors decided it was appropriate.

The “truth” promoted at this event is clearly at variance with the following advertised Pitzer statements:
1. The Pitzer Faculty Handbook (http://www.pitzer.edu/offices/dean_of_faculty/handbook/appendix_b.htm ) states, “Institutions of higher education are conducted for the common good and not to further the interest of either the individual teacher or the institution as a whole. The common good depends upon the free search for truth and its free exposition.”
2. Pitzer Admissions FAQ page (http://www.pitzer.edu/admission/faq.asp) states, “Students are given academic freedom....” (See # 9.)
3. Pitzer Courses/Curriculum website (http://www.pitzer.edu/academics/curriculum/index.asp) states, “The Pitzer education is a rigorous course of study, firmly grounded in the traditions of learning and intellectual debate found at the great colleges and universities of the world.” Here Pitzer also claims that we live in a “world that requires an increasingly diverse range of skills, languages and perspectives.” [Emphases added.]

Pitzer is not encouraging “intellectual debate” when the “truth” concerning highly controversial topics has been predetermined and broadcasted to the entire Claremont College community. A quality education demands open inquiry, but there can be no free search for truth when “truth” has been prescribed.

Pitzer promises its students “academic freedom.” But given the positions of power and influence instructors hold over students, NoIndoctrination.org wonders if dissenting or critically thinking students felt free to tell their instructors that they had no interest in their class “sponsoring” a clearly politicized and one-sided controversial event. It stands to reason that some students were probably intimidated into keeping silent or perhaps pretending to go along. At RateMyProfessors.com there are a number of comments concerning some of the Pitzer professors who teach the classes sponsoring “Truth in a Time of Lies and Censorship." Some complain of excessive bias, pushing irrelevant agendas, and intolerance towards opposing views. Such comments heighten our concerns.

Will students in these sponsoring classes be exposed to speakers or materials that present opposing perspectives in a fair manner? If not, these students are being subjected to an indoctrination, not an education.

NoIndoctrination.org invites Pitzer officials to respond to our questions and concerns. Tuition payers, donors, alumni, current and prospective students deserve to know whether or not Pitzer honors its stated commitments to academic freedom, the free search for truth and its free exposition, intellectual debate, and diversity.

A NoIndoctrination.org rebuttal notice was sent to Pitzer President Laura Skandera Trombley with cc’s to the following:
Alan Jones, Vice President, Academic Affairs/Dean of Faculty; Jim Marchant, Vice President/Dean of Students; Arnaldo Rodriguez, Vice President Admission/Financial Aid; Rebecca Shehee, Vice President of Advancement; Susan Andrews, Vice President for Marketing and Public Relations; Michael Ballagh, Assistant Dean of Faculty; Sandy Hamilton, Associate Director, Academic Administration; Eugene P. Stein, Chair of the Pitzer Board of Trustees; Jennifer Berkley, Secretary to the Pitzer Board of Trustees; Ella Pennington, President, Pitzer College Alumni Association; Professor Depa Basu; Professor ford Fairchild; Professor Jessica Lawless; Professor Edith Vasquez. In addition, a letter was mailed to Pitzer President Laura Skandera Trombley, Board Chair Eugene Stein, and Alumni President Ella Pennington encouraging a reply.

[Nov. 17 UPDATE: "Truth in a Time of Lies and Censorship" (with one speaker change from the Pitzer event) was a June 28, 2007 workshop presented by Revolution newspaper (the "Voice of the Revolutionary Communist Party,USA"). Here is how Revolution describes the workshop: “'Revolutionary Journalism: Truth in a Time of Lies and Censorship,' will be presented at the U.S. Social Forum in Atlanta on June 28 by Revolution newspaper. This workshop will be a chance to meet, hear from, and talk with a panel of extraordinary journalists from Revolution newspaper. Find out what it is like to spend your life writing about the struggles, events, and lives of people around the world from a uniquely communist perspective and a relentless pursuit of the truth." More information can be found at http://rwor.org/a/094/workshop-en.html

About the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA (http://rwor.org/rcp-e.htm)
"The Party Exists for No Other Reason than to Serve the Masses, to Make Revolution"
"Of all the tyrants and oppressors in the world, there is none that has caused more untold misery and committed more screaming injustices against the people of the world than the rulers of the U.S."
"Our Ideology is Marxism-Leninism- Maoism"
"The whole system we now live under is based on exploitation—here and all over the world. It is completely worthless and no basic change for the better can come about until this system is overthrown." (http://rwor.org/a/ideology/3mp.htm)]

Rebuttal

When a course posting goes online, NoIndoctrination.org sends a notice to the professor inviting him/her to contest any specifics. (See Rebuttals.) If we receive a rebuttal, it will be posted here.