Senate Bill and Faculty Transparency

SB 1305

There are some excellent bills in the Arizona Senate that I will bring to your attention. These aim at protecting freedom of speech for groups that are often singled out by secular professors (conservatives, Christians, Jews) and increasing transparency about what material is taught in the state universities. I know firsthand that none of this is welcomed by faculty. Although they often forget that faculty meetings contain more than just left-wing viewpoints and are not to be used to advance partisan politics, these meetings are still treated as if there is only one opinion on these matters. That is because, for the most part, all the faculty do think the same way. And that way is that they do not want greater transparency.

Why not? Enrollment numbers are so dismal that anything that could chase away parents or potential students is unwelcome. But if this course material is so good and helpful, why wouldn’t parents and potential students want more of it once they learned what is being taught? The fear of transparency tells us that something else is going on. As we often see from professors, they know better than the parents and should be trusted without question as experts.

The faculty will cast this as a matter of faculty governance. The claim is that non-experts do not have the knowledge needed to decide what is taught. The content of a course is determined by the trained faculty. That is as it should be. But it is also true that the content of the course should be public information. This is so that parents and students can make informed decisions on what to take. As it is now, honors students report that they are not given access to required reading lists or syllabi until the first day of class. That is not right.

None of this should be controversial. When I was a student, one of my favorite things was to go to the campus bookstore after the classes for the next semester were announced and look at all the books that each class offered. It always made me want to take even more classes. And in my school, we are asked for our syllabi well ahead of the semester. Presumably, this is so that students can see that ahead of time. As a state institution, we must be open and transparent about what is taught and about our enrollment.

Senate Bill 1305 would require this kind of transparency. Professors can teach what they want. Parents, students, legislators, donors, and pastors can know ahead of time what that will be. If it is such compelling content, making this information known will only lead to more enrollment. If it is controversial content that parents and students are not interested in paying money for, then perhaps that is the answer to why enrollment is abysmal.