The Shame of Harding University
For our national and global readers, the four writers on this blog attend Harding University, a conservative Christian university located in Searcy, Arkansas and affiliated with the Church of Christ. A quick glance at the posts on this blog should easily show that we are probably well outside the mainstream school of thought at this particular school, but we enjoy our discussions and we have all benefited greatly from our contact with a lot of great students and professors. Harding has a lot to reccomend it in terms of its personal connections.
That being said, Harding’s biggest shame has been its suppression of academic freedom that has come in the form of censorship and intimidation. In the past, this blog has written about censorship and intimidation that has come from the administration, teachers, and school-sponsored organizations that clearly advocate a right-wing, close-minded approach to understanding religion as well as politics. It is understandable that a Christian institution would want to have certain ideological goals in mind, but it is inexcusable for an academic institution to actively suppress open dialog in favor of one-sided indoctrination. One of the worst recent examples of this type of intellectual oppression is the apparent censorship of Dr. Mark Elrod, who runs one of the most popular blogs in Arkansas.
Dr. Elrod’s blog has attracted almost half a million viewers over the past few years, and recently, he attracted even more notoriety after an audio interview with downintheblog.com and some subsequent blog posts on the politics of gay marriage. Evidently, not all of this attention was positive, though, and some individuals chose to complain to the Harding University administration instead of challenging any of the points made in the interview or the posts. To its enormous shame, the Harding administration seems to value certain of its loud alumni over its obligations as a legitimate academic institution. As a result, Dr. Elrod will be making his blog private.
Harding has a lot of qualified teachers and a lot of great people who make up its tightly-knit community. Although it has great potential as an academic institution, Harding’s greatest shame is its disregard for academic freedom. It is important that students learn how to think, not what to think. If Harding truly desires to be a university, it must turn from its shameful habits of censorship and embrace the most fundamental value inherent in higher education: the value of ideas and continued discussion.
Although the views and expressions of this blog are the respective views of the individual writers, I second everything said and add the following: institutional intimidation in the form of censorship is an affront to academic integrity. I hope that one day Harding University will issue a formal apology to Dr. Mark Elrod.
S.C. Denney
7 Jul 08 at 6:39 pm
A formal apology would be nice.
That’ll be the day…
This is hardly the first time that Harding has done something like this, but until enough people stand up and call them out on it, they will keep up with this terrible tradition.
And to anyone who might be personally offended at my judgment of Harding, know this: I criticize because I think it can and must get better.
David M. Manes
7 Jul 08 at 6:44 pm
I’ll disagree with the last part of David’s comment. Harding is irredeemable. The financial irresponsibility of the University has created a situation in which it is in such dire need of money that it will whore out any and all aspects of the social and academic environments in exchange for contributions from hateful yet wealthy alumni. It isn’t going to change because the type of “university” that it fancies itself to be is a logistical impossibility. I am ashamed of my participation in this academic farce. There is an undeniable (yet small) circle of true intellectuals of all religious and political stripes, and that allowed me to somehow survive a generally unpleasant four year stint in the place where thousand are forced to live like the Politburo wants them to. I dealt with the annoyance of being censored while at Harding, but I can scarcely imagine the frustration of those who have built their lives there. They can take HU hero Dick Cheney’s advice to Pat Leahy. I wish for nothing but its destruction.
jkkuwitzky
7 Jul 08 at 7:10 pm
I should have known that you would disagree, jkkuwitzky, no matter what I wrote. :)
David M. Manes
7 Jul 08 at 7:26 pm
Its either my generally combative and disagreeable personality or your far left yet oddly religious views. Either/or.
jkkuwitzky
7 Jul 08 at 7:41 pm
There are times when I am ashamed of my association with the behavior of people who call themselves Christians.
I cannot see how the attitude toward Dr. Elrod can even come close to being called Christian.
I hate this attitude that so many have, that “If you don’t believe exactly as I believe then you ARE be wrong.” /rant
Victoria Chittam
7 Jul 08 at 10:56 pm
I count the moments I spend in front of a classroom at Harding University as some of the greatest moments of my life.
There are people who would give anything to have my job. I teach and interact with some of the brightest and most talented people in the world.
Unfortunately, there are many people who see me as an adoration and a threat to Christian education.
But, for the record, I was not “pressured” into changing my blog from “public” to “private” status.
I made this decision on my own as the result of the general frustration I have with members of our fellowship who want to make a spiritual judgment about me based on my political views.
In the last few days, much of that angst has been directed toward my employer and, as a result, toward me as well.
I would much rather have a private conversation about things that are important to me than a public conversation that leads to additional complaints about me to the Harding University administration.
I envy your independence and youthful energy. Keep up the good work and I’ll see you in the “private” zone.
ME
7 Jul 08 at 11:21 pm
“On Wednesday, Iranian members of parliament voted to discuss a draft bill that seeks to “toughen punishment for disturbing mental security in society.” The text of the bill would add, “establishing websites and weblogs promoting corruption, prostitution and apostasy,” to the list of crimes punishable by death.”
The mullahs of Tehran seem to be learning from their counterparts in Searcy.
jkkuwitzky
7 Jul 08 at 11:27 pm
Disgusting. The world and the blogosphere need Mark. Especially in this political year. We’re about to witness history if Obama gets elected and only a few will be able to discuss this on his site.
Talk about Gnat Straining 101.
Best of luck to you Mark.
Rodney McCarthy
7 Jul 08 at 11:45 pm
Once again, Mr. Elrod states he was not pressured…but people will still be ripping on Harding that he was pressured. I don’t know how much clearer he can be.
I’m tired of all this “academic freedom” crap. Simply being a teacher at a university does not grant you the freedom to say anything you want without consequences.
Some of you need to grow up a bit and understand the real world and understand that the real world is not a utopia.
Roland
8 Jul 08 at 5:38 am
Roland-
It’s all well and good to make a comment, but don’t come here and in one fell swoop label every commenter here immature and naive. Just because we may believe in academic freedom of expression despite conservative pressures that give your jolly bits a jump, it does not mean we are naive.
I will agree that simply being a university professor does not allow one to say whatever he or she wants. A professor cannot make terroristic threats, he or she cannot sexually comment about students or colleagues; but the professor must be able to offer different thoughts to the discourse–whether it be political, religious, or academic. A university cannot stifle the discourse and consider itself a serious academic institution.
I would suggest that you attempt to understand academia–it’s not the real world pal.
Ian
8 Jul 08 at 6:51 am
It isn’t utopia for me to have my belief that professors should have more freedom of speech than the average employee of any other institution.
Nobody would call your employer to report your dissident political views on a subject in any other job, whether you worked for US Steel, Morgan Stanley, or Kellog’s. They would assume that your political views were yours alone and that you had the right to hold them and express them. If they did report issues to your employer in any other setting, the employer would do nothing.
I think it is vital that professors have not only the same amount of freedom of speech that typical employees do, but more. It is vital to the universal atmosphere that must exist in a university for it to be of any value. If the university is crushing dissent through open threat, subtle intimidation, or social stigma, then it is all the kind of institutional censorship that threatens Harding’s ability to exist as a university.
And yes, Harding is a private Christian school, so it would be understandable for its community to silence a dissenting professor who was actively undermining core Christian values in the classroom when they were hired to teach the opposite. But it is another thing altogether for the community to pressure an individual who expressed privately held views on a blog completely separate from the university which do not undermine the goals of Christian education at all.
David M. Manes
8 Jul 08 at 6:59 am
I’ll second Kolby’s thoughts. The place is doomed. It’s been doomed since Benson took over. Contrary to its image as a school run like a business, Harding is constantly hand-to-mouth. Since it depends on an ever shrinking demographic for its ever shrinking undergraduate population, it now has to trawl for cash with specious post-graduate degrees (a master’s in “leadership?” WTF is that?) Burks is slowly but surely running the place into the ground, and when he goes (he’s already stayed longer than the rules state that a president may stay), he will be replaced with someone at least as insipid as he is, seeing as how he’s had plenty of time to stack the Board with likeminded people.
The place is a clown college. It’s only going to get worse. DO NOT let your HU degree be your final degree. Get master’s degrees from other institutions IMMEDIATELY after you graduate.
JH
8 Jul 08 at 7:20 am
I would like to see HU students take up the cross for academic freedom. Religion should never force an academic community to think in a conformists way. This is sad. I would like to see students force a change.
Good post guys!
Edward Carson
8 Jul 08 at 8:06 am
Oh, yeah. I forgot…Kolby knows all. Yeah, he knew it all when he was predicting a John Edwards candidacy as well. Harding, doomed. That’s funny. People were saying the same things when I went to Harding back in the 80’s and they started to do a lot of much needed renovations.
Whenever I see a Kolby post and his pseudo-intellectual, condescending comments, I get ready to laugh.
JH, I’ll make sure I pass along your warning to my very successful friends who graduated from Harding. Maybe they can float you a loan. lol.
I see you all are still on the band wagon that Harding is hushing him up when he came out and said they are not. Either he is a liar or not. I take him at his word that Harding officals did not intimidate him to take his blog private.
Roland
8 Jul 08 at 1:53 pm
Former Harding student checking in with a question:
Has Harding ever opened up the Ken Starr files? Someone I know who worked there in the late ’90s told me they kept several of his published writings under lock and key during the Impeachment. (Ken Starr was an undergrad at Harding in the late ’60s, and wrote a coupe of opinion pieces for the newspaper, IIRC.) The idea was to keep who-knows-who in the media from descending on the University and saying who-knows-what-whether-it’s-true-or-not.
Perhaps the Elrod Affair is another case of Harding simply trying to keep its name out of the papers?
benwiles
8 Jul 08 at 2:01 pm
That is extremely interesting. I am so looking into that next semester.
David M. Manes
8 Jul 08 at 2:10 pm
I don’t think I ever claimed to know all, but I can see how purveyors of a worldview based on certainty would make that mistake. I think I’m on record as being mildly embarrassed at my poor prognostication record regarding the 08 primaries, but I don’t see what this has to do with anything at this point. I’m sure you still harbor ill feelings toward me from an earlier time when I was perhaps a bit too bombastic in this sort of forum. I’ve made great effort to mature in this regard, but I see you haven’t.
I never said Harding was doomed, I said it was irredeemable. By that I meant that the sort of changes David expressed a desire for earlier in the thread are unlikely to happen. Their business model is such that they are able to afford their development plans with the fundraising plan they have put in place, which by necessity precludes the sort of change that some might desire. Now that I have a graduate degree from a serious institution I really don’t give a damn, but I was addressing the issue proposed by someone else. Sorry for the pseudo-intellectualism. I read Roland’s blog earlier and actually have some sympathy for his grievances vis-a-vis l’affaire Elrod, but it seems that your internet schtick seems intent on burning the bridges that might lead to an adult conversation.
jkkuwitzky
8 Jul 08 at 3:24 pm
Kolby, I am all for an adult conversation however, you are probably right. I probably do still harbor some feelings from another blog conversation with you. That and I woud rather have a conversation over a couple of beers than a glass of chardonnay. I will give Elrod props..in conversations I had on his blog I always felt we were sitting in the student center (over some cokes).
Roland
8 Jul 08 at 6:50 pm
Rest assured I would never drink chardonnay. I’m a burgundy or Oregon pinot noir man, though I also enjoy the occasional beer (import, of course). I apologize for any past offense I may have given, though I seriously doubt I said anything abrasive enough to warrant residual feelings (given that our online paths have not crossed for some time now).
jkkuwitzky
8 Jul 08 at 6:59 pm
Aw, that’s cute… they’re making up! :)
David M. Manes
8 Jul 08 at 7:01 pm
I have to engage in enough dull partisanship in my occupational life. I see no reason to further engage in it with parties that claim to be open to reasonable conversation.
jkkuwitzky
8 Jul 08 at 7:09 pm
[...] Harding University’s disapproval of a professor and popular blogger’s postings inspire a…… and disapproval by some of their students. [Political Cartel] [...]
7.08.08 Featured blogs of the day « Student Bloggers
8 Jul 08 at 11:21 pm
This is interesting. Now that more profs are blogging it will be interesting to follow if this kind of thing becomes a trend. There’s certainly possibility for conflict. I guess colleges can handle it when profs speak their mind in the classroom, but not so much when political biases can be proven online.
Alex
8 Jul 08 at 11:24 pm
[...] who will kowtow just to make a few sticks-in-the-mud happy. And it is obvious from the pushback of students and alumni that these matters have long been building up in the minds of many and that this may [...]
And the dust settles « And Another Thing…
9 Jul 08 at 12:11 am
“And the dust settles,” by Odgie is the best wrap up of the whole Elrodgate scandal. He pulls together all of the relevant information and asks some interesting questions. Definitely worth the read.
David M. Manes
9 Jul 08 at 9:00 am
I’m feeling the need to stand up a bit for our beloved institution of higher learning. Yes, I abhor the way the administration is dealing with this situation, and it’s a crying shame that freedom of speech does not seem to extend to an academic institution. I certainly would have handled the situation differently, and I sincerely hope that in the future Harding changes its rather partisan stance and focuses more on academics.
However, I firmly believe that Harding University has provided me with an excellent education, thanks to the many fantastic professors it employs such as Dr. Elrod. I think the very fact that we are all here, having open conversations with intelligent people around the world on this rather liberal blog, proves that Harding is doing something right, even if the product was not necessarily its intent.
I have grown tremendously in my time at Harding– spiritually, mentally, emotionally– I’m not sure whether this is because of or in spite of Harding, but I have grown nonetheless, and so I am thankful. I will be proud to graduate with my bachelors degrees as an HU Bison.
Karie
9 Jul 08 at 11:05 am
[...] Political Cartel [...]
My Name is Elrod Too « The Proletarian
10 Jul 08 at 12:37 am
I rejoice that such issues are at last being raised at Harding, and from within Harding. I am a graduate of Harding, l957, and it is little short of staggering to know that, more or less, the attitudes obtaining then have officially continued to prevail: an absence of toleration of academci freedom on the part of faculty, with the result that students left/leave Harding in many respect simply indoctrnated, not educated in any real traditional sense. Fortunately, for my graduate work I went to a state university and breathed a new ether, one of mental freedom and a passionate respect for intellectual inquiry. I have never supported Harding financially because of its seeing itself as a bastion promoting a right-wing political ideology. And I don’t have much respect for a religious faith that is founded in and protected by progaganda. I hope that you and other blogs like you reflecting this new spirit will continue and REFUSE to be intimidated by the old guard. I feel a great appreciation of your couratge.
Larry Horn
13 Jul 08 at 7:20 pm
Oh, the “old guard,” like the new guard is highly repulsive to us.
S.C. Denney
13 Jul 08 at 10:17 pm
[...] Chris and Kelly take a look inside Harding College professor’s trouble with his peers. [...]
HackCollege Podcast Episode 33: Beer Sleeves | HackCollege
14 Jul 08 at 7:02 am
[...] Harding officials reportedly urged him into keeping his private thoughts private, according to Political Cartel, a blog run by Harding alum. The authors described Harding’s reaction to Elrod’s queer [...]
A Discouraging “Day of Encouragement” / Queerty
21 Jul 08 at 10:38 am
Read this late, but Kolby, there are amazing domestic beers that you should try. For example Three Floyds brewery out of Indiana and Dogfish Head brewery out of Delaware make some amazing beers. If you like IPA, go for Dogfish Head’s 90 minute IPA. Imported can be good, but they usually keep the good stuff for themselves and send us the crap.
krjohns
21 Jul 08 at 4:12 pm
JH said, “Burks is slowly but surely running the place into the ground, and when he goes (he’s already stayed longer than the rules state that a president may stay)”
What rules state he may only stay president a certain amount of time??
Luke
11 Sep 08 at 11:25 pm
Interesting discussion. I knew many gay students at HU in the 1980’s. It has changed a great deal since then-not sure it has evolved or just more expensive. I will be back for more insight.
Omicronseti
26 Nov 08 at 12:19 pm