Barrett Kalellis
Monday, Oct. 7, 2002

Organized by an activist student group that calls itself by the amorphous name of Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE), the "conference” amounts to nothing more than a roster of radical pro-Arab activists and Palestinian sympathizers — indeed some with terrorist connections — aiming to hector attendees into a "Hate Israel” frenzy, and with the express purpose of getting U.S. colleges and universities to divest their stock in companies that do business with Israel, in addition to calling for a halt to all U.S. foreign aid to that country.

With such a one-sided group of speakers and panelists, this gathering looks less like a forum for reasoned debate in a university setting than it does a blatant political propaganda campaign that actually recommends strong-arm tactics, such as massive national P.R. proselytizing efforts that call for "civil disobedience” and "direct action,” if need be.

One wonders if "direct action” includes suicide bombings.

The prospect of this conference is proving very unsettling to Jewish students, alumni and other supporters and benefactors of the university, who discern the ugly head of anti-Semitism. Commenting with the tone-deafness typical of university presidents, U-M President Mary Sue Coleman blithely waves away criticism with the usual academic freedom bromides of how the university has "the right to explore and debate the widest possible range of ideas, no matter how repugnant …,” blah, blah, blah.

This milquetoast response — and one that is both disingenuous and untrue — is in marked contrast to the courageous speech given last month by Harvard University President Lawrence Summers decrying the rise of anti-Semitism on campuses across the country.

Let’s all do a thought experiment. Can we assume that the University of Michigan would provide a forum magnanimously for, say, the Ku Klux Klan, or the American Nazi Party, or the World Church of the Creator, to "explore and debate” their particular ideas? Would a student group representing these points of view even be allowed on campus, let alone be funded by student fees?

As I see it, the downhill spiral into fatuousness of the University of Michigan began in the late 1960s, when I was a student there during the Vietnam War. With the birth of the anti-war "teach-ins,” the soi-disant higher morality of graduate students and associate professors manifested itself in the warm embrace of political protest egged on by the wet, slobbery kiss of socialist thinking to "transform society.” "The Greening of America,” it was called.

Once thus seduced, more radical protests, non-negotiable demands and knee-jerk U-M responses became commonplace: the Black Action Movement in the 1970s leading to racial separatism; the prohibition of ROTC student recruiting on the campus; the imposition of mandatory "sensitivity classes” for incoming freshmen; the unconstitutional student "speech codes”; the creation of trendy, politicized academic departments and disciplines of dubious merit; preferential admissions quotas — all these demonstrate the university’s weak administrative leadership for the past 30 years.

If there ever were an example of the tail wagging the dog, it can be found at the University of Michigan. By kowtowing to the wishes of activist student groups and a preponderance of leftist faculty, spineless university administrators have chosen to enshrine political correctness as their highest ideal, deluding themselves into thinking that this represents noble, "progressive,” egalitarian values.

Now, however, they have crossed over the line. Political demagoguery and overt hate groups that are fobbed off as learning have no place on a college campus. The university administration chooses which student groups it will sanction, and it has the responsibility to investigate these groups before it awards them any cachet on campus.

In the case of the SAFE organization, U-M has abdicated its responsibility and Jews and other alumni have just cause for alarm in these parlous times. No matter what the reputation of the University of Michigan is in strictly academic or scientific areas, it is sad and even farcical to observe that the public perception at least of this once-proud school has fallen almost to the level of schools in backward countries, where politically activist students and dogmatic faculty would rather shut the university’s doors and go riot in the streets than engage in civilized instruction and discourse. I’m ashamed of my alma mater.

Barrett Kalellis is a columnist and writer whose articles appear regularly in various local and national print and online publications.

Editor's note:
Tammy Bruce’s "The New Thought Police: Inside the Left’s Assault on Free Speech and Free Minds"