Another Academic Witch-Hunt?

David Horowitz and his group Students for Academic Freedom (SAF) are no darn good, as I discuss in my previous post, but they are hardly the only ones dedicated to subverting the academy. The group Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), headed by Greg Lukianoff, is another honey. In a series of press releases in February and May of 2005, FIRE peddled the story of a student in Rhode Island College's social work department named Bill Felkner. Supposedly, this student was given an F for failing to meet his class's requirements--which included lobbying for "progressive" legislation which he opposed. In the words of FIRE's May press release, the college's School of Social Work "mandated that he lobby the the Rhode Island legislature for one of several policy positions that he did not support."

Sounds a bit like one of David Horowitz's witch hunts (previous post), doesn't it? In a letter to FIRE, the president of the college denies this allegation. As far as I can tell, FIRE has never given any source for the forced-lobbying story besides the student's own words. It should be noted that Felkner was called before a departmental disciplinary hearing in April 2005 for a variety of reasons not made altogether clear by FIRE. FIRE, of course, considers this just another part of a "campaign" against this student, but once again, what is their source of information? Far more likely, in the absence of contrary evidence, is that this student was mad about his grade and all too happy to play the "liberal bias" card.

Naturally, this story appears, not just on the FIRE website, but on the SAF's website as well, where the student himself tells the story. Considering that the SAF's website was the origin of the Colorado and al-Qloushi witch hunts (see previous post), the whole thing is rather suspicious.