Republican 'witch-hunts' leftist university lecturers

The University of California's Los Angeles campus has been thrown into turmoil by a conservative Republican graduate who is offering money to students to record the classes of professors they suspect of left-wing bias and "indoctrination".

The young Republican, Andrew Jones, has drawn up a hit list of professors he refers to as the "dirty 30" and devoted page upon page of his website to denouncing their supposed professional malfeasance.

"Do you have a professor who just can't stop talking about President Bush, about Howard Dean, about the war in Iraq ... or any other ideological issue that has nothing to do with the class subject matter?" he asks in his recruitment statement.

"If you can help ... collect information about abusive, one-sided or off-topic classroom behaviour, we'll pay you for your work."

Jones' targets have accused him of attempting to conduct McCarthy-like witch-hunts at one of the most prestigious universities in the US.

They also believe his offers of hard cash for lecture notes and recordings of individual professors violate both university rules and intellectual property law.

"These are young ayatollahs declaring a fatwa against the infidels," said an outraged Andrew Apter of the UCLA history department. He is not on the list, but several of his friends and colleagues are.

There is nothing new about grassroots Republicans monitoring what they see as a left-wing bias on US college campuses.

Party ideologues from Bill Bennett, a former Education Secretary, to Grover Norquist, one of President Bush's closest advisers, have spent years attacking left-wing professors and pushing for more conservative appointments, especially in history and political science departments.

Nobody, though, has previously offered money to spy on individual classes - something that is dividing conservatives as well as detractors.

In the past few days, three prominent board members on Jones' unofficial Bruin Alumni Association have resigned to register their disapproval.

"I am uncomfortable to say the least with this tactic," said Jim Rogan, a former Republican congressman who played a prominent role in the 1998 impeachment of Bill Clinton. "It places students in jeopardy of violating myriad regulations and laws."

But another, former state Republican Party chair Shawn Steel called the recording initiative "a great idea".

So far, only one student has actually signed up to record his professor, leading many of those targeted to believe their best strategy might be to lie low and let the right-wingers tear each other apart.

- INDEPENDENT