RIGHTWING GROUP OFFERS STUDENTS $100 TO SPY ON PROFESSORS
Dan Glaister in Los Angeles

The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/)
Thursday January 19, 2006

· Republican graduate's site prompts witch-hunt fears
· 31 academics listed as 'worthy of scrutiny'

It is the sort of invitation any poverty-stricken student would find
hard to resist. "Do you have a professor who just can't stop talking
about President Bush, about the war in Iraq, about the Republican
party, or any other ideological issue that has nothing to do with the
class subject matter? If you help .. expose the professor, we'll pay
you for your work." .

For full notes, a tape recording and a copy of all teaching materials,
students at the University of California Los Angeles are being
offered $100 (£57) - the tape recorder is provided free of charge -
by an alumni group.

Lecture notes without a tape recording net $50, and even non-attendance
at the class while providing copies of the teaching materials is
worth $10.

But the initiative has prompted concerns that the group, the
brainchild of a former leader of the college's Republicans, is a
witch-hunt. Several targeted professors have complained, figures
associated with the group have distanced themselves from the project
and the college is studying whether the sale of notes infringes
copyright and contravenes regulations.

The Bruin Alumni Association's single registered member is Andrew
Jones, a 24-year-old former student who gained some notoriety while
at the university for staging an "affirmative action bake sale"
at which ethnic minority students were offered discounts on pastries.

His latest project has academics worrying about moves by rightwing
groups to counter what they perceive to be a leftist bias at many
colleges.

The group's website, uclaprofs.com, lists 31 professors whose classes
it considers worthy of scrutiny. The professors teach classes in
history, African-American studies, politics, and Chicano studies. Their
supposed radicalism is indicated on the site by a rating system
of black fists. The organisation denies on the website that it is
conducting a vendetta against those with differing political views. "We
are concerned solely with indoctrination, one-sided presentation of
ideological controversies and unprofessional classroom behaviour,
no matter where it falls on the ideological spectrum."

But in another posting, it is clear just where on the spectrum the
group thinks the bias might fall. "One aspect of this radicalisation,
outlined here, is an unholy alliance between anti-war professors,
radical Muslim students and a pliant administration. Working together,
they have made UCLA a major organising centre for opposition to the
war on terror."