MAILBAG:’Liberal’ label doesn’t apply to professors

I was appalled at Chuck DeVore blaming “liberal” professors for what he calls “hate speech” uttered by guest speakers at the Muslim Student Union at UCI (“Liberal groupthink causes conservatives to self-censor,” June 18).

In the first place, the faculty does not select the speakers for student groups. Secondly, the first amendment of the Constitution guarantees freedom of speech, whether one likes it or not.

Toward the end of the article, DeVore seems to state that there was no audio or video recording of the particular speech of which he complains. Was DeVore in actual attendance? If there is no recording or official transcript, he is commenting on hearsay.

DeVore says most humanities professors contend that our foreign policy toward the Middle East has created more problems than it has solved and that a majority of humanities professors think the U.S. and Israel are a greater threat to world peace than China, Russia or Iran. Anyone who honestly looks at the facts would come to that conclusion. What is “liberal” about that? Does he mean we should overlook that the U.S. and Israel are waging illegal war in the Middle East? I can only conclude that those “liberal” professors make up their minds based on evidence and academic discipline, which is what they are hired to do.

I hope the academic community will remain independent of the name-calling and political ideology that infects our society.

JAMES E. YOUNG