BOULDER, Colo.—The University of Colorado may set up a program to bring prominent conservatives to teach at its Boulder campus, which is often criticized as being too liberal.
University officials said this week they may pursue a $9 million endowment for a Visiting Chair in Conservative Thought and Policy. It would be filled by scholars, historians, politicians or media figures serving a one- or two-year appointment on a rotating basis.
University spokesman Bronson Hilliard said the object is to add diversity of thought, not “be a thumb in the eye to anyone’s progressive politics.”
Some conservatives were immediately critical.
Tom Lucero, a Republican and a member of the university’s governing Board of Regents, said the focus of the visiting chair was narrow.
“Part of what our goal and intent is is to widen the debate,” he said. “The way you widen the debate is by casting the description in much broader terms. It should not come down to a debate of conservative vs. liberal.”
Colorado Republican Tom Tancredo joked Wednesday that he would apply and push for classes in “English Only 101” and “American Assimilation.”
Tancredo, a hard-liner on immigration who advocates a fence on the U.S.-Mexican border, also said he would propose a 20-foot-high fence around the Boulder campus.
Tancredo spokesman T.Q. Houlton said Tancredo doesn’t really want the job and was just poking fun at CU’s plans.
Ed Rozek, a professor emeritus of political science, said establishing an endowed chair in conservative views sounded like tokenism.
“What is needed is pluralism of ideas, meaning no political party has a monopoly on any campus,” Rozek said. “All views—socialism, communism, democracy—should be discussed.”
Hilliard defended the idea said the endowed chair is not a token gesture. He said the idea has been in the works for at least a decade.
“Conservative thought has been extremely influential in economics and dominated the political landscape for the last 30 years,” Hilliard said.
The university has repeatedly come under fire from conservatives who accuse it of a liberal bias, particularly during the controversy that led to the firing of ethnic studies professor Ward Churchill on plagiarism allegations.
Churchill created an uproar when he likened some Sept. 11 victims to a notorious Nazi. University officials concluded he couldn’t be fired for that essay but they launched an investigation into his research that led to his dismissal.
Churchill has denied wrongdoing and sued the regents, saying his constitutional rights were violated. The lawsuit is pending.
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Information from: Rocky Mountain News,
