Tuesday, March 15, 2005

Students for Academic Fairness: Booting their worthless asses off of campus. Part 3 of the David Horowitz smackdown.


All right, I think I'm pretty well done slapping the crap out of right-wing nutbar David Horowitz here and here -- now I'd like to deal with those spineless weasels that call themselves "Students for Academic Fascism." Uh, "Fairness." I meant "Fairness." Man, was that Freudian or what?

Anyway, you can get the official scoop on those fine folks at the SAF at their official website, at which you will learn that their goal is

to end the political abuse of the university and to restore integrity to the academic mission as a disinterested pursuit of knowledge.

and a lot of other rubbish that isn't remotely close to being true.

In fact, the SAF, founded by David Horowitz in 2003, has made a mission of terrorizing anyone and anything even remotely left wing or liberal on numerous campuses. Quite simply, if you're a liberal who thinks you're suffering from academic bias or unfairness, I don't think you'll get much out of the SAF. But that's not the point here.

What intrigues me is that, for a group that calls itself "Students for Academic Fairness," they seem to have a pretty major component of non-student involvement. I refer, of course, to Horowitz himself, whose iron-fisted control of the SAF is pretty obvious from just a cursory perusal of the web site's main page:


  • Article: "Correction: Some Of Our Facts Were Wrong; Our Point Was Right," by David Horowitz.

  • Article: "Why an Academic Bill of Rights is Necessary," by David Horowitz.

  • Article: "Raising the Bar in Ohio," from the "Campus Director" but which begins:

This week, Students for Academic Freedom successfully raised the bar on the issue of academic freedom in Ohio where David Horowitz testified at a hearing in the state capital ...

  • Commentary: "David Horowitz's Response to the AAUP".

  • Report: "In Defense of Intellectual Diversity," by David Horowitz.


See what I mean? It's hard not to get the impression that the SAF is not so much a student group as it is a front for the non-student Horowitz to get access to campus. Members of the SAF aren't so much involved or concerned students as they are whining, spineless, adoring groupies of Horowitz, giving him the means to continue to harass any academics he doesn't happen to agree with. So what's the problem here? I'm glad you asked.

It's been a while since I've been on campus but, back then, getting recognized as an official student group meant that you had to have a significant amount of student involvement and participation. Official student groups were, for the most part, eligible for funding but you had to qualify and one of the qualifiers was just what I described -- essentially, you had to be an organization for the students and by the students. Outside non-student assistance was typically all right as long as it didn't dominate which, I'm sure, puts the SAF in a kind of awkward position.

Given Horowitz's pervasive influence on the SAF, it's hard not to see the group as little more than a front for him to give him access to campus to let him continue his harassment. Typically, of course, dingbat nutbars like Horowitz wouldn't have that kind of access but, with the SAF fronting for him, why, there he is in all his splendour and glory, undoubtedly making the rounds as, I'm guessing, a "guest speaker" for various SAF groups at events at which the SAF members themselves are little more than hired help to set up tables, plug in microphones and get Davey boy back to the airport and off to his next gig. This is , of course, speculation but I've seen exactly this sort of thing before so I'm feeling pretty cocky about being right.

And what does this all mean? Well, perhaps nothing. On the other hand, it might mean that the way the SAF is structured would normally make them ineligible to be a student group on a lot of campuses. And wouldn't it be entertaining if someone were to, say, mosey on down to the Student Union Center or wherever it is and ask for the guidelines for what constitutes a "student group", and see if the SAF actually qualifies.

Maybe I'm making a big deal out of nothing. On the other hand, what have you got to lose? You weren't doing anything important tomorrow, were you?

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