Updated

I am a graduate of UCLA and my heart beat a little faster Wednesday morning when I read the news that UCLA alumni have banded together to get something done that is long overdue.

The UCLA alums — go Bruins — are offering students $100 in cash to attend classes and provide information on instructors who are abusive, one-sided, or off topic in pushing their personal political ideologies.

The program is called "Exposing UCLA's Radical Professors" and the alums say they are aiming at faculty who are "actively proselytizing their extreme views in the classroom, whether or not the commentary is relevant to the class topic."

You may recall I got involved in one of these initiatives myself when I recently jumped on the case of an English101 professor at Warren County Community College in New Jersey who was telling his students — in English class — "true peace will only come when American soldiers turn their guns on their superior officers."

I even had that professor on my radio show. He wouldn't back down. If you were a student there you would fairly assume you might fail the class if you didn't parrot the professor.

Out at UCLA the alum group is offering to pay students for tapes and notes of their classes to see what the professors are saying.

The school is warning this might be illegal.

I say the school is trying to bully students into bending a knee to radical professors.

Teachers who control whether a student passes or fails should know people are listening to what they are telling students is true and what is not. And they should be held accountable. Everybody else is.

One professor has resigned from the alumni group over the issue of paying students to report on their professors. He knows some of the faculty are out of line, but he thinks it is intrusive to have students reporting what a professor is teaching.

I call it fair and balanced in the classroom, and it sounds like a good thing.

As the leading financial backer of the alum group said, "There's not enough balance on the campus. Some families are going into hock to send their kids there and are not getting their money's worth."

I agree.

Go Bruins.

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