Professor Watchlist

Professor Watchlist is a website run by Turning Point USA that lists US professors which it alleges "discriminate against conservative students, promote anti-American values and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom."[2] It was launched in 2016.[3] As of December 2016, the website included about 200 professors.[4]

Professor Watchlist
Type of site
Online database
Available inEnglish
OwnerTurning Point USA
URLwww.professorwatchlist.org
Alexa rank 1,436,503 (US, January 2020)[1]
CommercialNo
Launched2016 (2016)
Current statusActive

The list's claims about the people it includes have been contested as misleading or inaccurate, and its existence has been criticized as an effort to silence or shame ideological opponents. Some critics consider it a threat to academic freedom while others consider it "more annoying than dangerous" according to Inside Higher Ed.[4][5][6]

Sources

Campus Reform, a part of the Leadership Institute, and Discover the Networks, a website run by the David Horowitz Freedom Center, were the sources for most of the professors on the Professor Watchlist.[7]

Response

Slate columnist Rebecca Schuman described the website as "abjectly terrifying" and said that she feared for the safety of the listed professors.[8] Some have criticized the website as a threat to academic freedom; Hans-Joerg Tiede, the associate secretary for the American Association of University Professors' department of academic freedom, tenure and governance, told The New York Times: "There is a continuing cycle of these sorts of things. They serve the same purpose: to intimidate individuals from speaking plainly in their classrooms or in their publications."[9] One professor included in the site, George Yancy, wrote that it is "essentially a new species of McCarthyism, especially in terms of its overtones of 'disloyalty' to the American republic".[10][6]

According to Inside Higher Ed, some critics consider the website "more annoying than dangerous".[6]

Critics including Peter Dreier of Occidental College—who is listed on the site for having criticized the National Rifle Association and using Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States as a required text—have pointed out errors of fact that may make Professor Watchlist less than reliable as a source of information. Dreier's entry formerly listed him as a former employee of the Industrial Areas Foundation and as the man who inspired college student Barack Obama to become a community organizer. Dreier identifies these claims about him as "complete fantasy". He also noted elements of his biography that the website completely omitted, such as his work with labor unions, his activism in favor of a minimum wage, and the books he wrote.[11]

Kent State professor Julio Pino said to The New York Times the site is "a kind of normalizing of prosecuting professors, shaming professors, defaming professors."[12]

The website's organizers say that it simply provides conservative students with a guide to their professors, akin to Ratemyprofessors.com,[13] enabling them to avoid left-wing classes.[5]

Over one hundred University of Notre Dame faculty members signed an open letter asking to be included in the site, saying in part:[14]

We surmise that the purpose of your list is to shame and silence faculty who espouse ideas you reject. But your list has had a different effect upon us. We are coming forward to stand with the professors you have called "dangerous," reaffirming our values and recommitting ourselves to the work of teaching students to think clearly, independently and fearlessly.

In response to the Notre Dame letter, University of Chicago psychology professor Leslie Kay started the website "Free Academics". This website lists the names of professors across the United States who have signed it to ask for their names to be added to the list. As of December 2016, it had over 1,500 signatories.[15]

See also

References
  1. "professorwatchlist.org Traffic Statistics". Alexa. Retrieved 28 January 2020.
  2. Flaherty, Colleen (2016-11-22). "Being Watched". Inside Higher Education.
  3. Sidahmed, Mazin (December 2, 2016). "A conservative website is targeting professors and accusing them of spreading 'left-wing propaganda'". Business Insider.
  4. Sidahmed, Mazin (December 2, 2016). "Professor Watchlist website elicits both fear and ridicule in US universities". The Guardian.
  5. Reilly, Katie (2016-12-01). "Professors Targeted by Conservative Watchlist Fire Back: 'It's Obviously an Attempt to Silence People'". Time.
  6. "Professor Watchlist receives challenge from new blog: Watch List Redux, where being named is intended as a badge of honor". www.insidehighered.com. Retrieved 2020-06-19.
  7. Knott, Katherine (November 23, 2016). "What It's Like to Be Named to a Watch List of 'Anti-American' Professors". Retrieved July 13, 2017 – via The Chronicle of Higher Education.
  8. Schuman, Rebecca (November 23, 2016). "Oh Good, a "Professor Watch List"". Slate.
  9. Mele, Christopher (2016-11-28). "Professor Watchlist Is Seen as Threat to Academic Freedom". The New York Times.
  10. Yancy, George (2016-11-30). "Opinion | I Am a Dangerous Professor". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-06-19.
  11. Dreier, Peter (December 9, 2016). "Professor Peter Dreier, targeted by Professor Watchlist, says it gets an F for accuracy". History News Network. Retrieved December 14, 2016.
  12. Lester, Kerry (30 November 2016). "Wheeling High graduate behind conservative 'Professor Watchlist". dailyherald.com. Retrieved 13 July 2017.
  13. Wenzke, Marissa (December 2, 2016). "This controversial website is targeting 'radical' left-wing academics". Mashable.
  14. "A letter to Professor Watchlist". The Observer. December 8, 2016. Retrieved January 2, 2017.
  15. Strauss, Valerie (December 14, 2016). "'The sort of company we wish to keep': More than 1,500 academics ask to join controversial 'Professor Watchlist'". The Washington Post.
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