EDITORS' CORNER
Faculty push back, submit their own statements
Professors within the University of Houston’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Science were asked to sign an agreement promising not to “indoctrinate” students by Feb. 10.
Dean Daniel O’Connor emailed faculty last week with a document titled “A Primary Objective of Higher Education is to Enhance Critical Thinking,” according to Chron.
The document included part of a November email from university president Renu Khator, which reads, “Our responsibility is to give [students] the ability to form their own opinions, not to force a particular one on them. Our guiding principle is to teach them, not to indoctrinate them.”
The pledge includes the following five statements: “A primary purpose of higher education is to enhance critical thinking;” “Our responsibility is to give students the ability to form their own opinions, not to indoctrinate them;” “I understand the definition and attributes of critical thinking;” “I design my courses and course materials to be consistent with the definition and attributes of critical thinking;” and “I use methods of instruction that are intended to enhance students’ critical thinking.”
The recent memo from O’Connor asks faculty to formally document their compliance with these standards, Inside Higher Ed reported.
In a meeting with associate English professor María González, O’Connor explained that the memo aims to ensure faculty adhere to Texas Senate Bill 37, which requires periodic reviews of undergraduate core curricula, but does not refer to “indoctrination.”
O’Connor reportedly said faculty who refused to sign would not face discipline. However, he and other deans could still be required to review syllabi or obtain individual statements of compliance from those who refuse, according to Chron.
Some faculty quickly raised objections to the pledge.
“I get this, and I’m puzzled,” González told Chron. “I’ve never seen something like this before. What’s going on here? I know what SB 37 is. This doesn’t refer to SB 37; this refers to an email from Dr. Khator.”
She said that she and other faculty in the English Department declined to sign the agreement and instead sent in their own acknowledgements.
“We’re just [committing] to doing what we’ve always done,” González said.
The University of Houston chapter of the American Association of University Professors encouraged faculty to take the same approach and provided a template response.
The AAUP’s suggested template reads, in part, “I write this letter in lieu of signing the Required Compliance Acknowledgement that builds off President Khator’s and several legislators’ claims that I, as a faculty member, might possibly be ‘forcing’ a particular opinion on my students or ‘indoctrinating them.’ The premise of this assertion is a straw man, and I am concerned that my signing of this letter could serve as some admission of guilt concerning these false accusations.”
“I always, in fact, have taught ways of critical thinking as outlined in your memo, but to have them paired with insinuations that I might have done otherwise at any point in time seems like it would bind me to admission of guilt for doing something that I have not done,” it reads.
The AAUP also sent a letter to the school’s deans, urging them to uphold “the freedom of faculty to teach consistent with their judgment and expertise,” according to Houston Public Media.
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