Tuesday, July 23, 2002

After Complaint, U. of Southern Maine Debates Reviewing All Distance-Education Materials By SCOTT CARLSON Some faculty members at the University of Southern Maine are furious about a faculty committee's proposal to require that videotapes and other materials for distance-education courses be reviewed by the university before the materials are used in class. The four-member faculty committee was formed after a distance-education student was offended by a tenured professor's remarks in a videotaped lecture. John Broida, the professor of psychology in the middle of the case, is known by his colleagues to be a provocative lecturer. In the videotaped lecture, made while teaching students about intelligence tests, he said: "Do you know that on average blacks have a lower IQ than whites? Yes, have you noticed that? It's true." After a student complained about Mr. Broida's remarks, the university administration set up the committee to study diversity issues related to distance learning and then make recommendations. Among the recommendations was the assertion that statements on course tapes "reflect the quality and integrity of the individual making the statements and the institution issuing the statements." The report urges the university's distance-education committee to "examine whether a procedure should be developed for assessing the accuracy and integrity of such statements prior to their release to the public." As part of the controversy, one of Mr. Broida's summer courses was cancelled. He has filed a grievance with the university. Members of the university's faculty union, which has stood behind Mr. Broida and has hired a lawyer for him, have been irked by the committee's recommendations. "The idea of having a committee censor a videotape that's used in distance-ed is the most contentious piece of this committee," says Donald F. Anspach, an associate professor of sociology who is co-president of the faculty union. "We believe that's clearly a violation of academic freedom, because that's about telling us what we can teach." Bob Caswell, the university's spokesman, says that administrators will meet with faculty members in the fall to review the recommendations. He says that administrators haven't discussed in detail the recommendation to screen the tapes. "We will maintain a commitment to academic freedom," he says. Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

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