Liberal professor disrupts college Republican meeting
Raw video: Temple University instructor hijacks 'right to work' forum
From that great bastion of academic freedom known as Temple University comes another example of a liberal professor bullying conservative students with a bevy of F-bombs.
The potty-mouth professor is Joseph Schwartz, a political science professor who told he’s won every teaching award at the university. He’s also a card-carrying Democratic Socialist (but he stresses he’s not an authoritarian communist).
The good professor, along with a handful of his followers, took over a “right to work” discussion hosted by Temple’s College Republicans and featuring a representative from Pennsylvania Right to Work Defense and Education Foundation.
Joseph Oleksak, the chairman of Temple’s Republican group, said the meeting was running smoothly until Professor Joseph Schwartz started raising questions.
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“I understand that not everyone agrees with my point of view,” Oleksak told me. “But the fact that somebody can come into another person’s meeting and take it over and then accuse them of racism – it’s an insult.”
Watchdog group Campus Reform obtained a video of the meeting and it shows Schwartz, along with students identified as members of the Temple Democratic Socialistic club, raising arguments with the speaker.
At some point, the professor used the “F-word” leading to a warning from the speaker. A member of the College Republicans told him that if kept cursing he would have to leave.
“The guest speaker took great offense to that and he asked him that if he was going to swear to get out of the presentation,” Oleksak said.
“Oh come on, f*****g a--,” Schwartz said. “I believe in the religion of foul language.”
A university spokesperson told me they were investigating the incident and would determine if any actions should be taken.
“Temple University is a community of scholars in which freedom of inquiry, freedom of expression and mutual respect are valued,” spokesperson Eryn Jelesiewicz said.
“It’s important that we all foster an environment conducive to civilized intellectual and educational stimulation within the university free from unlawful harassment by other members of the community.”
Professor Schwartz told me that he was passionate but not disrespectful.
“I would apologize for using profane language,” he said. ‘Otherwise, I think I made substantive points and I don’t think they were responded to. If people want to be effective in their politics, they’re going to have to learn to argue for it.”
Schwartz said he was just trying to “generate an intellectual exchange.”
“A university is a place for open dialogue,” he said. “People should not disrupt other speakers. They should respect speakers with other points of view.”
Oleksak said he’s not surprised that their meeting was disrupted by the professor and his followers. He said it’s just a way of life on one of the nation’s most liberal college campuses.
“It’s sad to say [but] I didn’t expect anything else,” he said. “That’s the sad part. I knew something like this was coming.”
The cold, hard reality is that American college and university campuses are hostile places to young people who cherish freedom.
Some of the nation’s great institutions of higher learning are infested with left-wing professors, protected by tenure, who use their classrooms to spew their anti-American rhetoric.
Where else are they going to find gainful employment?
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