I've been caught up in the rush of GOTV stuff but I got a phone call today that really ticked me off.
I'm recovering from god-knows-what from doing aid work in S. India and decided to take a Community College course in Developmental Psychology rather than lay around. It's a small CC in Walla Walla, Washington, which is somewhat rural and very conservative.
The instructor seemed to have a anti-choice bias but nothing pointed until the 3rd class when we were covering fetal deveopment.
We spent half the class watching ultrasound and in utero videos of fetuses when at the end were given a written assignment to "write a letter to your unborn fetus. Give your hopes and aspirations for it's development."
I expected this to be dealt with rather quickly but I've spent the last two months being blown off by the instructor and department chair trying to have this addressed. Today I finally got a call from the Vice President of Instruction and was completely blown off. The call bordered on insulting. Now I'm ticked. What follows is the letter I have drafted to the State Board in charge.
(name removed), Executive Director
WA State Board for Community and Technical Colleges
PO Box 42495
Olympia, WA 98504-2495
Dear Mr. (name removed),
On September 26, 2006, I was a student attending a Psy103, Developmental Psychology class at Walla Walla Community College in Washington State, instructed by Professor (name removed). We were covering fetal development and for about half the class watched ultrasound and in utero videos of fetuses. At the end of the class the instructor gave a written assignment to "Write a letter to your unborn fetus. Give your hopes and aspirations about its future."
I was shocked at what I saw as a blatantly biased anti-choice message being made in to a class assignment. I made a brief comment in class on it. Rather than waste my time I dropped the class on September 28, 2006 and commented to her that I thought the assignment was inappropriate. She replied that the "material is from the department chair."
I then talked to the department chair, (name removed), a week or so later who defended the assignment on grounds of academic freedom but said she would discuss it with the instructor. About a week later I followed up with the Department Chair by phone and she relayed that the instructor was unaware that the assignment could be viewed as a biased anti-choice message and that she was unlikely to use the material again. I asked if the material was unlikely to be used, or wouldn't be used, and she said, "unlikely". I said that it sounded to me like the material or something similar would be used again in the future. She then said the topic was resolved in her view but I was welcome to refute her decision with the administration.
Today, October 17, 2006 I talked with Vice President of instruction (name removed) by phone who said that such assignments had been used before without complaint. She vigorously defended the right of the instructor to make such assignments and said that she could not see how it could be viewed as biased. I asked if this was normal for this Community College and she replied that she saw nothing wrong with it. My understanding of this is that it is condoned behavior.
This is a small Community College in a conservative town with most students coming directly from High School that are not accustomed to the College environment. It is easy to see students not protesting such things regardless of their own views or feelings in such a setting.
I strenuously object to my tax dollars being used to propagate such a message in what I see as a clear violation of academic standards. Biased instruction on either side of such a hot button issue is patently inappropriate at a state institution and I find it offensive. Denying that it could be seen as biased even further impeaches Walla Walla Community College's credibility and academic principles.
What are the State's standards concerning this and is this acceptable at a State institution?
Sincerely,
(me)
CC: (removed)
This goes out in tomorrows mail. I've cc'd the Provosts of Academic Affairs at both the University of Washington and Washington State University because they accept a lot of transfers from Walla Walla Community College and may be interested in the academic standards of the place.
My question is, are there other venues I should contact? This is just plain hogwash and this college needs to clean up its act.
Update
Some of the comments have me worried that this stirs up a hornets nest at best and might be counter productive to academic freedom at worst. I'm going to make a couple of appointments with Psych Dept. chairs and Professors from other colleges to get their input before sending anything.
I think I may scale the letter back and address it to the Academic provosts of the State Universities calling the Community College to task for not upholding or even debating reasonable academic standards.