Christopher Ortiz’s comments in Monday’s edition fail miserably

in evaluating the issues of academic freedom on our campuses. To

begin with, Mr. Ortiz does a very effective job at what the

academic elite are trying to do, distract from the real issues of

students feeling intimidated, discriminated against and upset with

the classroom being a ideological pulpit by using bad words like

“McCarthyism,” “blacklists” and “witch hunt.”

Professors and liberal thinkers are convinced this is a “witch

hunt” because they refuse to change, refuse to accept that maybe

they’ve neglected their responsibilities to the students’ academic

freedom by being overly concerned about their own. But it’s not

about liberal and conservative, it’s only about students. The

College Republicans at CU put up a Web site to report bias (the

word liberal, conservative or any of the like are nowhere to be

found) because they’re concerned, not because they wish to

blacklist educators.

If a conservative professor intimidated a student in the

business school, they should be dealt with accordingly. The same

applies to liberal professors in any other part of the university.

Conservative students just happen to be the ones voicing their

disdain right now. If any student – liberal, conservative or

undecided – feels that a professor has stepped out of line, I

encourage them to contact the CSU chapter of Students for Academic

Freedom. The Web site is www.geocities.com/colostatesaf. It’s about

empowering students, not blacklisting professors; it might do us

well to remember that.

Robert Lee

Vice-chairman for the Colorado Federation of College

Republicans

I am writing in response to Christopher Ortiz’s article “Higher

Ed Does not need a watch list.” While his article points out an

interesting current event, I fail to find where your opinion is

represented. Opinion articles should offer ideas that are contrary

to other people’s beliefs and I feel that his article does not

complete this requirement. You state in your article that having a

strong opinion about everything is a good thing, which seems odd to

me because of his obvious lack of this quality.

Also, he misused the word “blacklist” when talking about the CU

College Republicans list of liberal professors. The list doesn’t

interdict these professors from teaching their classes, it just

flushes out all the conservative nutjobs that the liberals would

prefer not to have in their class anyway.

Mark Danbom

Sophomore, accounting