BY MATTHEW BOEDY

When some conservative media outlet contacts you, with a picture of a lecture slide or assignment from your course, implying a bias against their conservative agenda, do you respond? If so, how?

I am not imagining a hypothetical scenario. The headlines of conservative websites such as Campus Reform and College Fix suggest that this is happening to faculty across the nation. It recently happened to a colleague of mine so I thought it would useful to share with readers of this blog how I helped her craft a response.

Here is her story: Last week a campus correspondent for Campus Reform emailed a senior lecturer in our English department to ask about a handout about “white privilege” from a course about social justice in our first-year composition program. The correspondent had apparently received a photo of the handout from a student in the course. (I am deliberately not using the instructor’s name to limit spreading her name further.)

This “tip” from the student is not surprising. Campus Reform claims on its site to be a “watchdog to the nation’s higher education system” by exposing “bias and abuse” on campus and offers a link on its website for readers to submit tips.

Specifics are absent from this mission statement, but Campus Reform reports on what it see as bias against conservative students on campus. If its headlines were not enough evidence for that claim, note that Campus Reform is backed by a group called the Leadership Institute, whose goal is to train the next generation of conservative activists through “schools, workshops, and seminars; a free employment placement service; and a national field program that trains conservative students to organize campus groups.” (I am not linking to any website on purpose.)

First, I want to explain how I ended up responding on behalf of my colleague. She contacted our local chapter of the AAUP and I am an officer in that group. I am also the chairperson of our state Committee A. She also didn’t know this at time but I have a history with Campus Reform. Most recently, one of its correspondents filed a public records request for my state university email, fishing for moments I had written about Donald Trump, Charlie Kirk, and Turning Point USA. (I am on Turning Point’s Professor Watchlist.)

My colleague sought assistance because she didn’t want to reply herself. She didn’t know the correspondent, who happens to be a student (a minor in English) in our department. Moreover she barely knew of Campus Reform. And she felt the short email was lacking in specifics.

The email read:

Good Afternoon Dr. XXXX,

My name is XXXX. I’m a student at UNG and correspondent for a media organization called Campus Reform. Currently, I’m working up a story based on some material from your English course, which I’ve included in the attached photos. Campus Reform would be greatly appreciative if you would reply to this email with an official comment on the material below.

Have a great day, XXXXX

Most importantly, my colleague didn’t want to respond because she thought she might get fired for even having attention like this brought to the school and her course. I assured her that was not the case. Our administration did as well.

I convinced her to let me reply. I am a former journalist so I have some background in this area.

Here is how I thought through my response, which I share below.

First, as I told my colleague, Campus Reform is going to write its story whether you respond or not. So you have to see it as an opportunity. (However, as of April 18, a story about this has not appeared on the Campus Reform website. The correspondent replied to my email on April 12 and said he was still trying find some information about the class material for his report.)

Second, you will not convince them to change their mind generally on their approach or specifically on the newsworthiness of their story.

That said, what is the opportunity?

A teaching moment about academic freedom for the student serving as a campus correspondent.

Even if, as in my case, your inquiring “reporter” is not a student at your school, there is a good chance he or she is a student somewhere. See your response as being not for the story or the website, but for the student.

No need to attack their conservatism or even engage with them about conspiracies about liberal bias in media or even higher education.

Speak in a language they also speak. I chose “values.” The values of academic freedom and journalism.

Third, offer some faculty support or praise for the course or assignment in question. Have you been honored for your teaching? Has the course been honored by your discipline or department?

Fourth, earn some points with your administration and praise the quality of the education at your school.

Fifth, make strong claims that challenge the implicit counter-claim made by Campus Reform. Tell the reporter to provide evidence of bias.

Lastly, offer to speak more with the reporter, even by phone or more email. Offer dialogue. It can’t hurt as long as you don’t get defensive.

I hope I followed my own principles. See my reply below.

XXX,

XXXXX, whom you contacted, asked me to respond to your request. I am not only the vice-president of our local chapter of the American Association of University Professors, I am also the chairperson of our state’s committee on academic freedom.

Academic freedom—the unfettered right of professors to teach relevant topics from within their discipline—is the bedrock of our higher education system in America because it promotes the search for truth. And as the AAUP says, “the common good depends upon the free search for truth and its free exposition.”

Campus Reform makes its name sadly by having students spy on and then report back on their professors, and so calls itself a “watchdog” for bias and abuse. UNG teaches leadership and in my opinion CR doesn’t show that.

For the record, this course and its subject matter has been honored by faculty here at UNG and at academic conferences [the instructor] has presented at. [The instructor] was honored with the 2018 recipient of the Governor’s Teaching Fellows summer symposium award. I am proud she is pursuing this work with her students, who from all reports think she is a fine teacher.

And this particular course “focuses on one of the major goals of a liberal arts education: to enhance the individual’s capacity for critically assessing the quality of one’s own thinking and how it may impact others.” A fine goal for any course, especially one that teaches first-year students.

I think that as a student at UNG you know the high academic quality we have in our instructors and classes. We also have no bias against any politics or ideology in our classrooms. To imply otherwise with the mere mention of a course on social justice and a photograph of a single document from that course is not journalism. If you have any evidence of bias or abuse in your courses or any other here at UNG, feel free to reply. I’d be happy to listen.

If you want to chat journalism, I’d be happy to share about my years in the business.

Guest blogger Matthew Boedy is an assistant professor of English at University of Northern Georgia and serves as the vice-president of his local AAUP chapter and as chairperson of Georgia’s committee on academic freedom.