BY HANK REICHMAN

The latest attempt to blacklist dissenting faculty members is the so-called “Professor Watchlist,” a project of a group called Turning Point USA founded by an ambitious twenty-something named Charlie Kirk.  The group’s website says it seeks to “to expose and document college professors who discriminate against conservative students, promote anti-American values and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom” and “educate students about the importance of fiscal responsibility, limited government, and free markets.”  As AAUP staff member Joerg Tiede reported on this blog, such blacklists have a long history.  The site has been condemned by numerous groups, including PEN America.  In an op-ed piece for Inside Higher Ed, John Warner largely dismissed fears about the site’s effectiveness, in part because it “is sort of comically inept.”

Now, however, more than 100 faculty members at the University of Notre Dame say they want their names added to the watchlist. The watchlist already includes two academics from Notre Dame. One is philosophy professor Gary Gutting, who is on the list, according to the watchlist website, because he wrote that the country’s “permissive gun laws are a manifestation of racism.”  The other is Iris Outlaw, director of Multicultural Student Programs and Services at the Catholic university. She is on the list, the website says, because she “taught a ‘white privilege’ seminar that pledged to help students acknowledge and understand their white privilege.”

The Notre Dame faculty members who signed the open letter said the people now on the list are, actually, “the sort of company we wish to keep.”  Here is the full text of the open letter sent by the faculty members requesting that they be added to the list, as published by The Observer, the student newspaper at Notre Dame:

Dear Professor Watchlist,

We, the undersigned faculty at the University of Notre Dame, write to request that you place our names, all of them, on Professor Watchlist.

We make this request because we note that you currently list on your site several of our colleagues, such as Professor Gary Gutting, whose work is distinguished by its commitment to reasoned, fact-based civil discourse examining questions of tolerance, equality and justice. We further note that nearly all faculty colleagues at other institutions listed on your site, the philosophers, historians, theologians, ethicists, feminists, rhetoricians and others, have similarly devoted their professional lives to the unyielding pursuit of truth, to the critical examination of assumptions that underlie social and political policy and to honoring this country’s commitments to the premise that all people are created equal and deserving of respect.

This is the sort of company we wish to keep.

We surmise that the purpose of your list is to shame and silence faculty who espouse ideas you reject. But your list has had a different effect upon us. We are coming forward to stand with the professors you have called “dangerous,” reaffirming our values and recommitting ourselves to the work of teaching students to think clearly, independently and fearlessly.

So please add our names, the undersigned faculty at the University of Notre Dame, to the Professor Watchlist. We wish to be counted among those you are watching.

Signed:

Encarnación Juárez-Almendros, Spanish
Ani Aprahamian, Physics
Francisco Aragón, Institute for Latino Studies
Doug Archer, Hesburgh Libraries
Carolina Arroyo, Political Science
Katrina Barron, Mathematics
Kevin Barry, Kaneb Center
Christine Becker, Film, Television, and Theatre
Gail Bederman, History
Patricia Blanchette, Philosophy
Susan D. Blum, Anthropology
Catherine E. Bolten, Anthropology and Peace Studies
John G. Borkowski, Psychology
Bruce Bunker, Physics
Elizabeth Capdevielle, University Writing Program
Matthew Capdevielle, University Writing Program 
Robert Randolf Coleman, Art, Art History & Design
Brian Collier, Institute for Educational Initiatives
Philippe Collon, Experimental Nuclear Physics
Michael Coppedge, Political Science
David Cortright, Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies
Mary D’Angelo, Theology
Antonio Delgado, Physics
Denise M. Della Rossa, German
Michael Detlefsen, Philosophy
Tarek R. Dika,  Program of Liberal Studies
Jane Doering, Gender Studies
Jean Dibble, Art, Art History & Design
Margaret Anne Doody, English
Kevin Dreyer, Film, Television, and Theatre
John Duffy, English
Amitava Krishna Dutt, Political Science
Stephen M. Fallon, Program of Liberal Studies and English
Stephen Fredman, English
Christopher Fox, English
Judith Fox, Law School
Mary E. Frandsen, Music
Jill Godmilow, Film Television & Theatre
Karen Graubart, History
Stuart Greene, English and Africana Studies
David Hachen, Sociology
Matthew E.K. Hall, Political Science
Darlene Hampton, First Year of Studies
Susan Harris, English
Randal Harrison, Hesburgh Library
Anne Hayner, Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies
Peter Holland, Film, Television, and Theatre
Romana Huk, English
Charlice Hurst, Mendoza College of Business
Lionel M. Jensen, East Asian Languages and Cultures
Debra Javeline, Political Science
Claire Taylor Jones, German and Russian
Michael Kackman, Film, Television, and Theatre
Asher Kaufman, History and Peace Studies
Mary Celeste Kearney, Film, Television, and Theatre; Gender Studies
Micha Kilburn, Physics
Janet Kourany, Philosophy
Thomas Kselman, History
Greg Kucich, English
Rev. Donald G. LaSalle, Jr., First Year of Studies
Daniel Lapsley, Psychology
Erin Moira Lemrow, Institute for Latino Studies
Neil Lobo, Biological Sciences,
George Lopez, Peace Studies
Cecilia Lucero, First Year of Studies
Collette Mak, Hesburgh Library
Julia Marvin, Program of Liberal Studies
Maria McKenna, Institute for Educational Initiatives and Africana Studies
Sarah McKibben, Irish Language and Literature
Erin McLaughlin, University Writing Progra,
Joyelle McSweeney, English
Stephen Miller, Music
Ann Mische, Sociology and Peace Studies
Leslie L. Morgan, Hesbuirgh Library
Brian Ó Conchubhair, Irish Language and Literature
Lisa Joy Oglesbee, Center for the Study of Languages and Cultures
Kathleen Opel, Notre Dame International
Jessica Payne, Psychology
Catherine Perry, Romance Languages and Literatures
Dianne Pinderhughes, Political Science
Pierpaolo Polzonetti, Program in Liberal Studies and Sacred Music
Margaret Porter, Hesburgh Library
Clark Power, Program of Liberal Studies
Ava Preacher, College of Arts and Letters
William Purcell, Center for Social Concerns
Benjamin Radcliff, Political Science
Steve Reifenberg, Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Karen Richman, Institute for Latino Studies
Charles Rosenberg, Art, Art History & Design
Deborah Rotman, Anthropology
David F. Ruccio, Arts and Letters
Valerie Sayers, English
Catherine Schlegel, Classics
Roy Scranton, English
Susan Sharpe, Center for Social Concerns
Kristin Shrader-Frechette, Biological Sciences and Philosophy
John Sitter, English
Cheri Smith, Hesburgh Library
Donald Sniegowski, English (professor emeritus)
Thomas A. Stapleford, Program of Liberal Studies
James Sterba, Philosophy
Susan St. Ville, Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies
Maria Tomasula, Art, Art History & Design
Steve Tomasula, English
Ernesto Verdeja, Political Science
Henry Weinfield, Program of Liberal Studies and English
John Welle, Italian
Michael Wiescher, Physics
Pamela Wojcik, Film, Television, and Theatre
Christina Wolbrecht, Political Science
Martin Wolfson, Professor of Economics Emeritus
Danielle Wood, Center for Social Concerns