This is a university, not a kindergarten

In a letter to the Wildcat yesterday, D. H. Bell criticizes the editor for the "double standard" of not applying "truth-in-lending" types of criteria to the issue of course content description. The assertion that students have the right to know course content makes sense. Any professor should provide a summary of the topics to be covered, and in my experience most do. They also include the readings and details of office hours.

Often, the first class session is spent elaborating on what the course will entail. The responsibility lies within the individual student to listen, ask questions, read the syllabus and decide whether a class meets his needs, and whether or not to drop it. Bell's assertion that the issue is not about warnings is what really concerns me.

As a doctoral candidate who may one day teach courses that others deem offensive, it behooves Bell to bear in mind the implications of attempting to label every course that contains what others might consider offensive material.

The reason that this matter arose centers on one student finding the content of one of her classes incompatible with her beliefs.

The result is a suggestion that warnings be included in the syllabus of any class that might be deemed by some students to contain offensive material.

It does not take a doctoral student to appreciate the far-reaching consequences of such a requirement.

And who is going to bear the responsibility for which courses warrant such a warning? I fear in Arizona that this would not be an issue for the individual faculty member, for how can we trust them to judge their own material? Rather, a committee might be charged with applying some notion of community standards.

One state representative has already decreed that her attack on women's studies will be taken up once more if "they don't get more conservative."

I don't know Bell's feelings about what should be taught. Mine is that I have a responsibility to let students know the course content, but equally a duty to challenge them - to help them appreciate new and old material from a variety of perspectives.

We are all here to learn, and we cannot do that by sitting in our cozy little closets ignoring the real world for fear that it might challenge us. This is a university, not a kindergarten where parents come running to the rescue of their upset little ones, or at least it should be.

Nick Ray
Ph.D. student