From the issue dated March 28, 2003
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Citrus College Suspends Instructor Accused of Giving Credit for Antiwar LettersBy LAWRENCE BIEMILLERCitrus College has put a part-time instructor on administrative leave after students said she had offered them extra credit for writing and sending letters to President Bush that opposed going to war with Iraq. Officials of the community college, near Los Angeles, said a dean had met with students in the class, who said they "were clear in their understanding that they would only receive credit if they wrote 'protest' letters." But the instructor, Rosalyn Kahn, said in a statement released through her lawyer last week that "a terrible wrong" had been done to her. She called the students' allegations "untrue" and said she had given extra credit for all assignments turned in, "regardless of viewpoints expressed." She also said the college's administration had acted "without a fair investigation" and without affording her "the protections of due process." Ms. Kahn had been hired this semester to teach Speech 106, a course that students are required to take if they hope to transfer into the California State University or University of California systems. Subsequently, one of her students, Christopher J. Stevens, went to administrators with a classmate to complain about what he said was Ms. Kahn's "political agenda." In addition to the extra-credit letters to President Bush, Mr. Stevens said in an interview, Ms. Kahn had also offered extra credit to students if they wrote letters to Jack Scott, a state senator. Mr. Stevens said the assignment was to write letters "about how important adjunct faculty members are to our education." Ms. Kahn delivered the letters to Mr. Scott in person. At another point, Mr. Stevens said, the instructor had asked students to fill out postcards about the importance of adjunct instructors. He said that the postcards did not carry addresses, and that she had said she would address them herself. He added that she had also encouraged students to visit the Web site of MoveOn.Org, a liberal political-action group, and that "the first 10 minutes of every class were devoted to her political agenda." Mr. Stevens said that after meeting with several college officials, he and his classmate believed that their complaints were being rebuffed. Through the California Republican Party, he got in touch with the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a nonprofit advocacy organization based in Philadelphia. Thor L. Halvorssen, FIRE's executive director, wrote to the college's president, Louis E. Zellers, about the allegations. A Meeting With Students In the meantime, Mr. Steven's initial complaint bore fruit. Samuel Lee, associate dean for language arts and foreign languages, sent a memorandum to Ms. Kahn. He then met with her students during a scheduled session of the class and discussed the allegations with them. In a letter sent the following day to Mr. Halvorssen, Mr. Zellers said that on the basis of Mr. Lee's meeting with the students, Citrus administrators believed that Ms. Kahn had abused her authority. In his letter, Mr. Zellers also said that any extra credit given for Ms. Kahn's original assignment would be expunged, and that students would be given an alternative assignment in which they could draft letters to President Bush "concerning the possible war with Iraq" and would be encouraged to express their own views. Mr. Zellers added that he would write to both President Bush and Mr. Scott asking them to disregard the letters from her students. He said Mr. Lee had apologized on behalf of the college to Ms. Kahn's students, and would work with any of them who have questions about their grades in the class. Mr. Zellers also said Ms. Kahn would be sanctioned "in an appropriate manner." Mr. Halvorssen issued a press release about the exchange that afternoon, saying the college had acted in "rapid response to the intervention" of his organization. Mr. Lee said that Ms. Kahn had been put on administrative leave, and that another instructor had been hired to complete the course. In her statement, Ms. Kahn said: "Forcing others to falsely espouse beliefs they do not hold is inconsistent with my practices as an instructor. I would not, and did not, penalize students who expressed views contrary to my own." http://chronicle.com Section: The Faculty Volume 49, Issue 29, Page A14
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Copyright © 2003 by The Chronicle of Higher Education