[PEN-L] Intellectual diversity?

[Louis Proyect]

http://www.columbiaspectator.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2006/02/16/43f41fa11b3e4
Columbia Spectator, February 16, 2006
Opinion
Metaphysics of McCarthyism
Juice Is Stranger Than Friction
By Jacob McKean
Academic freedom” and “intellectual diversity” are the two primary 
buzz-phrases of the right-wing movement to remake academia in its own 
image. This struggle has played out pretty dramatically at Columbia, with 
most of the major manifestations of the movement having made appearances on 
campus. We’ve had the effort to intellectually cleanse the MEALAC 
department of professors critical of Zionism, the continuous right-wing 
mudslinging directed at a few outspoken professors, and the occasional 
militaristic attempt to silence war critics. But most departments have 
escaped such scrutiny.

One can’t help but conclude that the promoters of “academic freedom” and 
“intellectual diversity” have been a tad disingenuous. A quick 
investigation shows just how selective these charlatans are.

Warning: what follows may shock and upset sensitive readers. There is an 
entire department at Columbia so ideologically monolithic that its students 
are not even aware that dissenting viewpoints exist. Worse yet, this 
academic monoculture extends into other related departments and classes, 
producing an academic environment so stifling and intimidating that no one 
I spoke to would go on the record for fear of retribution. The department? 
Economics.

As a history major, I have no experience with econ classes and certainly 
none with science. So rather than jump to conclusions based on my study of 
course curriculums, class Web sites, and casual observation, I decided to 
interview actual economics majors and other students in related 
departments, like industrial engineering and operations research. I spoke 
to many students, but I heard similar things from all of them. I’ve 
included their most representative comments here.

So, does the economics department offer its students an intellectually 
diverse education? “There is no diversity of perspective in the ... 
department. We don’t talk about different schools of economic thought. I 
don’t even know what they’re called or what other ideas of economics would 
be. The professor mentioned that there were different schools of thought 
once in Principles of Economics [an introductory course], but we weren’t 
tested on it.”

There are never any dissenting opinions presented? “Every econ class is 
taught from the same perspective, but I couldn’t even tell you what that 
perspective is because I don’t know what else there might be. It’s not 
critical at all.”

So what is the model that these dogmatists are pushing? “We only have one 
model. There’s a firm that owns a company and there are employees that work 
for it. We’ve never used any other kind of production model.” Imagine if a 
Middle Eastern history class were taught this way. Do you think I’d be the 
only the one who would care about this?

It seems reasonable to expect professors to at least allow students to 
openly discuss and question their view. But does that happen in economics? 
“There’s no discussion of whether the models we’re studying are right or 
wrong, or if there are different models, or even if they apply to the economy.”

And do professors explain their point of view or try to justify their 
ideology? “We’ve never discussed the implications of the assumptions we 
make in econ. Most of the time the professors don’t even mention what the 
assumptions are.”

What about the practical implications of this ideology—are they ever 
mentioned? “No one would ever ask a question like, ‘Why is unemployment 
natural?’ There’s just no discussion of anything like that.”

Some classes do talk about things like unemployment, however. Here’s an 
exchange I had with a student in industrial engineering and operations 
research:

“One time we made a ‘termination curve’ to figure out how many jobs you’d 
have to cut to make a business run optimally.”

“Have you ever discussed how to save jobs?”

“Uh, no.”

“Have you ever made an ‘executive compensation curve’ to figure out how to 
optimize profits by reducing executive compensation?”

“(Laughs) Definitely not.”

The domination of these departments by a single ideology has naturally led 
to uniformity on other levels as well. Every single student I talked to in 
economics and industrial engineering reported that their department is 
entirely geared towards putting them in financial services occupations. 
They reported a complete lack of resources for students interested in other 
types of work and a constant reinforcement of the assumption that they 
would all become investment bankers.

Many students said they would prefer a more diverse curriculum but that it 
was unavailable to them. Those who found all of this rather troubling 
reported an intimidating and isolating environment for dissenting 
viewpoints of any kind.

With this in mind, and really it’s all rather obvious, I am left to wonder 
where all those shrill advocates of “academic freedom” and “intellectual 
diversity” have gone. Could it be, just maybe, that they don’t object to 
the ideological uniformity of the economics department because it happens 
to mirror their own right-wing politics? I can only conclude that they were 
completely self-serving to begin with, nothing but grandstanders promoting 
a reactionary political agenda. But I will give them a chance. I patiently 
await their campaign to overhaul the economics department.

Jacob McKean is a Columbia College senior majoring in history and 
African-American studies. Juice is Stranger Than Friction runs alternate 
Thursdays.

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