The Press Democrat - Santa Rosa Junior College's oak-studded campus is aflame with controversy triggered by the anonymous posting of red stars and a reference to communist indoctrination on 10 faculty office doors.
Instructors quickly saw the action as a threat to academic freedom, but the student who claimed credit for the protest said it was about left-leaning bias in the lecture hall.
The stars, which unnerved some instructors, were accompanied by a copy of a state Education Code section prohibiting the teaching of communism with the "intent to indoctrinate" students.
"It makes me a little anxious," philosophy instructor Michael Aparicio said.
Ed Buckley, the college's vice president of academic affairs, weighed in with a defense of academic freedom, saying in an e-mail to SRJC faculty that it includes teaching "difficult and controversial material."
But political science major Molly McPherson of Rohnert Park said she had only intended to start a discussion about the personal politics of SRJC humanities instructors by posting the stars.
"It's a big issue," said McPherson, president of the SRJC Republicans, a campus club. "The opinion of the far left is presented as fact, with no alternative."
Some students fear their grades will suffer if they express a contrary view, she said.
...be construed as anything even remotely like fascist or Nazi activities? Agree with Ms. McPherson's stance on the issue or not, it seems like a perfectly reasonable form of free speech. A bit McCarthy-like, perhaps, but certainly not fascist.
Maybe she broke some sort of campus regulation about posting flyers, but that still doesn't exactly bring us to the horrors of the "Third Reich."
Orcinus compares this act to Russian and German attacks on Jews from decades past, but isn't that comparison a bit overwrought?
I think so.