Friday, September 21, 2001

LOGGING IN WITH . . . Richard J. Bishirjian A Political Scientist Creates an Online University Catering to Conservatives By MICHAEL ARNONE Dismayed by what he perceives as a liberal bias in American higher education, Richard J. Bishirjian has created Yorktown University, an online institution tailored for conservatives. Mr. Bishirjian -- a former political-science professor at the University of Dallas and at the College of New Rochelle, in New York -- and 54 other instructors started teaching in June at the institution, which is organized as a for-profit venture and which takes its name from the final battle of the Revolutionary War. Several of the instructors have held high positions in Republican administrations or are known as conservative authors and opinion writers. So far, the university has attracted 25 students, who are taking courses that embrace Western civilization and free-market philosophies of economics and government. Students can earn bachelor's degrees in government and managerial economics, or take courses for personal interest. Yorktown is currently seeking accreditation. Q. How would you describe the philosophy that you bring to Yorktown University? A. We bring to it an interest in government, politics, history, and culture, which apparently is shared by the adult students who come to us. In other words, we have a view of American government based on a very close reading of the founding of the Constitution of the United States ... to reflect the American Revolution, its consequences, the aspirations for a free people to have their own government. Q. What do you think is wrong with American higher education that led you to create your own university to put forth your philosophy? In your view, what are colleges and universities teaching wrong? A. I think that they're contributing to a deepening nihilism that is afflicting American culture. ... I think that if you continue, as they have for generations, to at least take a position distant from discussion of moral standards or to advocate moral relativism, that you damage the culture. I have the view that American education, particularly in the social sciences, has gotten so far away from that as to make education at the higher level a threat to American society. And let me be quite clear here -- I believe in literacy, but I don't believe in education. I believe that higher education in its extreme, which we find in many institutions of higher learning, is deleterious to your health. Q. Do you think that students have been eager to learn from a university like Yorktown for some time, and that you're filling a need? A. It has been out there. In fact, you can see it in the success of any number of sectarian institutions. There has been a proliferation of them in the past 20, 30 years. ... Remember, we're nonsectarian, and I'm not saying, "Come here to get religion." I'm saying, "Come here to get an education." But those who do have sectarian institutions that they established in the past 10, 20, 30 years have not been disappointed. There are actually people out there who want to send their children to get good moral instruction. So there appears to be a market for that. What I've been wanting to tell you is that I think that by our example we will encourage 10, 15, 20 organizations to create their own universities. Q. Aren't you asking for competition, then? A. I would love to have competition, because in doing so they'd create an interest in online education. A market of competition is good for everyone -- it's good for students, it's good for us, it makes us sharper. This kind of market activity defines the marketplace so we better know who is interested in this. Q. Has it been hard to get faculty members to create courses for Yorktown? A. No. In fact, I've got more people online coming than I really have the resources here to do well in assisting them to develop their courses. Q. You offer Webcasts featuring topics and guest panelists with a conservative slant. You're very proud of them. Are they a means of advertising, a means to spread the word? A. Well, it's a form of public education and thus fulfilling our obligation to educate. It's a media event that attracts students and other interested people to our Web site because you can't hear the Webcasts unless you come to our Web site. So it's a form of marketing, but also it plays to our strength, which is to rely on the expertise of our faculty. Background article from The Chronicle: An Online University Plans to Present a Conservative View of the World (12/15/2000) Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

Education Dept. eases student-privacy rules for FBI's terrorism investigation On campuses across U.S., students hold rallies for peace, drawing mixed responses Private colleges in urban areas are most likely to feel fallout from last week's attacks, report says Pakistan's Islamic colleges provide the Taliban's spiritual fire In Afghanistan, a forlorn university prepares for even more isolation Faced with no way to pay for it, U. of California shelves dual-admissions plan Scholars question the image of the Internet as a race-free Utopia A political scientist creates an online university catering to conservatives