Academic Bill of Rights

Academic Bill of Rights :

What this bill does:
• Requires the board of trustees of each public and private institution of
higher education to adopt a policy recognizing that students, faculty and
instructors of the institution have the following rights:
o A learning environment in which students have access to a broad
range of serious scholarly opinion.
o Students are to be graded solely on the basis of their reasoned
answers and not to be discriminated on the basis of political,
ideological, or religious beliefs. Faculty and instructors are not to
use their courses or positions for the purpose of political,
ideological, religious, or anti religious indoctrination.
o Faculty and instructors are not to infringe the academic freedom
and quality of education by persistently introducing controversial
matter into the classroom that has no relation to their subject of
study.
o University administrators, student government organization, and
institutional policies are not to infringe the freedom of speech,
freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, and freedom of
conscience of students and student organizations.
o The institution must distribute student fee funds on a viewpoint-
neutral basis and must maintain a posture of neutrality with
respect to political and religious disagreements.
o Faculty and instructors are free to pursue and discuss their own
findings and perspectives but have to make students aware of
other serious scholarly viewpoints.
o Faculty and instructors have to be hired, fired, promoted and
granted tenure on the basis of their competence and knowledge
and not on the basis of their political, ideological, or religious
beliefs.
o Faculty and instructors cannot be excluded from tenure, search,
and hiring committees on the basis of their political, ideological, or
religious beliefs.
• Boards of trustees of public and private campuses are required to adopt
a grievance procedure under which a student, faculty member, or
instructor may seek redress for an alleged violation of any of the rights
specified by the institution’s policy adopted under this bill.
• Each board of trustees must provide students, faculty, and instructors
with notice of the rights and grievance procedures in the institution’s
course catalog, student handbook and web site.
Additional information:

• To access the bill in its entirety, click on or visit the following link:
http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/bills.cfm?ID=126_SB_24

I hope all institutions across the country follow the same direction that Ohio has. As a conservative here at Plymouth State University, I had professors who are very liberal and press there political view as fact. I've had professors that all they talk about is liberal this, liberal that and not talking about other political views. Futhermore, if you have another political view the professor feels threatened and switches subjects, or might take points off from a paper, test, etc for different view's. If they are going to teach then they should teach without political bias, or at least mention what the other political parties think about that certain subject. I'm wondering if anyone else has an opinion about this, or had this happen to them, or visa versa.