Professor Watchlist — a new site that names college professors who “advance a radical agenda in the lecture halls” — named three current and former Cornell professors, alleging that they have a liberal bias.
The site was created by Turning Point USA, an organization that says that its mission is to educate students on “true free market values.” Founder and Executive Director Charlie Kirk said that it was time to expose some professors who are “totally out of line.”
Two professors were named for their comments in The Sun last year in an article about how the vast majority of faculty political donations go to Democrats.
Prof. Andrew Little, government, was mentioned for saying that hiring more Republican faculty at Cornell would “almost certainly require sacrificing on general quality or other dimensions of diversity.”
The other — Prof. Emeritus Kenneth McClane, English — was named on the site for saying that he believes the “anti-scientific rhetoric of many in the Republican Party” is disturbing.
“Many of us here are scientists,” he said last fall. “We believe in global warming.”
The site also accuses Prof. Sara Pritchard, science and technology studies, of claiming that female professors should be awarded “bonus points” in their student evaluations, to counteract the effects of gender bias.
Pritchard said that women are more likely to receive personal attacks and “comments that have nothing to do with their teaching abilities or competencies,” according to a Campus Reform article referenced by the watchlist website.
The site names over 200 professors from universities around the country and the list is considered by many to be a threat to academic freedom, according to The New York Times.