For Immediate Release
Media contacts:
Jane Turnis
(719) 389-6138
JTurnis@ColoradoCollege.edu
Leslie Weddell
(719) 389-6038
Leslie.Weddell@ColoradoCollege.edu
AUTHOR OF “WHAT’S LIBERAL ABOUT THE LIBERAL ARTS?” TO ADDRESS CHARGES OF BIAS IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Michael Berube responds to increasing conservative concerns of liberal bias
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. Oct. 18, 2006 – Michael Berube, author of the
newly published “What’s Liberal about the Liberal Arts? Classroom
Politics and ‘Bias’ in Higher Education,” will respond to
arguments by conservative critics that higher education is too liberal in his
lecture at 7 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 2 at Packard Hall, 5 W. Cache La Poudre St.,
on the Colorado 
College
campus.
In his book, Berube explores charges by conservative critics that America's universities are biased toward liberalism. Over the last five years, conservative complaints about liberal bias in academe have intensified, Berube says. He does not deny that most college campuses are “teeming with liberal faculty.” Instead, he asserts that colleges and universities have a responsibility to remain liberal, as independent intellectual inquiry is fundamental to democracy.
Berube also explores the dilemma of liberal teachers encouraging open debate but opposing racism, sexism and homophobia. He maintains that the real threat to open debate is conservatives seeking to squelch liberal ideas in the name of "fairness" to foster more conservative perspectives.
Berube, the Paterno Family Professor in Literature at Pennsylvania State University, admits to being a liberal progressive but maintains that he is politically noncommittal in the classroom.
He also is the author of “Higher Education under Fire: Politics, Economics, and the Crisis of the Humanities” and has written for the Village Voice and The New Yorker.
The event is free and open to the public.
For information, directions or disability accommodation at the event, members of the public may call (719) 389-6607.
About Colorado College
Colorado College is a nationally prominent, four-year liberal arts and sciences
college that was founded in Colorado Springs in 1874. The college operates on
the innovative Block Plan, in which its 1,945 students study one course at a
time in intensive 3½-week blocks. For more information, visit www.ColoradoCollege.edu
<http://www.ColoradoCollege.edu>.