Testimony of Political and Religious Discrimination in the Classroom

Letter to Sponsors, Staff and Committee Members
Via Email and Fax

I am writing on behalf of an embattled student, Aaron Haberer from Borough of Manhattan Community College, who received a failing grade for disputing his professor’s virulent political opinions against America and religious devotees. Aaron as well as numerous students and faculty have taken courage from the Academic Bill of Rights (ABOR) legislation in New York (S2300 / A04406), and wish to applaud your efforts to sponsor this vital legislation. I am focusing on Aaron’s story as a typical example of the flagrant abuses of student rights that increasingly characterizes much of the academic experience today. Although under analysis in the Higher Education Committee, ABOR has played a remarkable role acting as a de facto declaration of student academic rights affording moral support for freedom of political viewpoint and religious belief in the classroom, the right to disagree with a professor, to be graded fairly and to be exposed to a wide variety of scholarly perspectives rather than a one-sided political agenda.

In 2002, prominent conservative author David Horowitz drafted the Academic Bill of Rights for State University of New York Board of Trustees chairman, Thomas Egan who expressed enthusiasm for its adoption on SUNY campuses and promised to hand it over to his board to proceed. However the radical faculty unions that hold sway over the university systems of New York and tie the hands of administrators, fought against the measure. Accordingly, he reneged on his promise and repeated attempts to bring it up to the board for a fair hearing by Trustee Candace de Russy were stonewalled leaving no alternative other than to introduce it to the state legislature. Finally, Governor Spitzer terminated Trustee de Russy’s term, effective by the end of this year, leaving no representation in the SUNY system to fight for the concerns of students, faculty and parents regarding political indoctrination in the classroom.

In response to the hasty sweeping of this issue under the rug by both the state and city university systems, Brooklyn College professor Mitchell Langbert and I lobbied our state representatives and traveled to Albany to meet with Senator LaValle’s aide, John D’Agati, director of the Senate Higher Education Committee to introduce ABOR. We were met with reasonable consideration and concern from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike, rather than stonewalling and outright denials of the problem. It’s apparent that there is a deep-rooted problem in academia when our State Legislature in Albany advances the free and open exchange of ideas and opinions more so than do our college campuses.

When Aaron heard the news that ABOR legislation was under consideration in New York, he contacted me to speak to the College Republicans at BMCC. He described his ordeal of political and religious viewpoint discrimination in his Modern History class taught by Professor Gronowicz and showed me the one-sided booklist and assignments his professor handed out to impose an “eccentric” political agenda on the students. There were a few critics of ABOR present at my talks, but some of them ultimately sided with Aaron in his fight for student rights. He was empowered to fight not only for his own fair grades, but other student’s academic rights as well, after being bolstered by ABOR and knowing that powerful people were behind him.

Anthony Gronowicz leads quite a busy life above and beyond his teaching position as Associate Professor of Social Science at BMCC. He is also a leading radical figure in New York’s political circuit and an outspoken anti-war activist. He ran for Mayor of New York City in the 2005 General Election as the Green Party “eccentric candidate,” according to The Villager and had an earlier run for State Assembly in 1996. His policy positions entailed restoring the failed policies of free tuition and open enrollment to City University of New York, banning cars one day a week, rehabilitating prisoners, fining people in proportion to their income and raising federal income tax to 91% for the top income bracket, to name a few mentioned in an interview in The Villager. His activist career from 1965 to the present centered on the anti-war movement. He started out by chairing the Chelsea Committee to End the War in Vietnam, joining SDS marches on Washington, rallies for cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal, protesting police shootings at City Hall Amadou Diallo rally, up to his recent speaking engagement at the Union Square Cindy Sheehan/Camp Casey anti-Iraq war protests. He is currently active in the political caucus of the Professional Staff Congress (PSC), the radical faculty union of CUNY. In the interview he said, “I am engaged in a crusade.” However, he has mistakenly brought his anti-American political crusade to the classrooms of BMCC.

Aaron, son of a Lutheran Pastor, is a devoted Christian himself, and a serious student of history aiming to teach on the high school level. Professor Gronowicz’s class was one of the requirements. But according to Aaron, instead of teaching a survey course on modern Western civilization, he spent an entire semester teaching secret societies and conspiracy theories as fact, and other topics that had no relation to the publicized course content. The course surveyed the Order of Skull and Bones, claiming that this Yale University fraternity boasting such past members as George W. Bush, John Kerry and other government figures, is a secret order that rules the world. Another student remarked that he hadn’t learned a thing because the entire course was an endless diatribe about Bush.

Aaron expressed his opinions during classroom discussions that these secret organizations and conspiracy theories are based upon fabrications and lies to justify calumny against our great country. Raising his voice to a shout, Gronowicz asserted that it’s not possible to find any explanations to justify America and it’s immoral actions. He singled out Aaron’s religious faith making such statements as, “it is impossible to be a free thinking educated person and believe in a God.” Aaron responded to the slanderous innuendo that all religious people are ignorant by offering good examples of highly educated God-fearing men and women, in order to argue against the crude mockery directed at him, but Gronowicz would shrug them off as exceptions to the rule. This professor’s classroom manner exhibited pure religious discrimination that violates academic standards as well as First Amendment rights.

Regarding 9/11 conspiracy theories, Professor Gronowicz stated that the destruction of the World Trade Towers was an inside job the Bush administration knew about way ahead of time because of the close family ties between Bush and the Bin Laden families. As proof that the government orchestrated 9/11, he argued that Tower Seven was not directly hit, but it came down nonetheless, by planned implosion because the government was trying to cover up secret documents concealed within its vaults. He also stated that first responders where not given the proper safety equipment. However Aaron was a union tradesman working as a first responder at ground zero and went about overturning the nutty professor’s false premises and errors one by one.

As Aaron argued his points in the classroom discussion, his saw his grades gradually plummet to an “F”. Another student who had a complaint about his grade, who never received lower than a B+ in the past, said that he received a C- in the course because Gronowicz lost his midterm, which hurt his GPA and forced him to repeat the class. Still other students voiced various complaints about this professor.

When Aaron realized the poor grades he was receiving were a direct result of expressing his firm belief in the righteousness of American government and his religious principles, he reported Gronowicz to another professor. This professor advised him about his academic rights and helped him file a formal complaint. Some of his fellow classmates likewise filed complaints when Aaron urged them to do so. Aaron fought for almost an entire semester and finally his grade was raised to one that he felt he deserved. Professor Gronowicz was summoned to appear before a peer review board. His classroom conduct was reviewed and as a result, he was demoted from a full time professor to an adjunct and given only one class assignment. Aaron feels that no student should have to go through the lengthy process he endured merely to get a fair grade that was based upon his course work, not upon political opinions or religious beliefs. ABOR added clout to his complaint and helped to dispel the notion that students are powerless and have no recourse.

This is only one of many recent cases that need to be exposed to New York’s legislators and the general public, and illustrates some examples of the infringements that ABOR specifically addresses. We appeal to you and the many state legislators of good conscience to continue to support this bill and take the appropriate action should it come to the floor for a vote in 2008 in order to take steps to prevent the growing plague of censorship, bullying, failing grades, and even lawsuits against those expressing political viewpoints or religious beliefs contrary to the campus orthodoxy.