Online Complaint Pushes U.C. to Reconsider Men's Lit. Course

by Jim Brown and Jenni Parker
February 1, 2005

(AgapePress) - After being accused of gender discrimination, the University of California has reversed an earlier decision to reject a lower-division English course called "Literature By and About Men."

U.C. analysts initially denied transferability of a course Professor David Clemens developed at Monterey Peninsula College, claiming Clemens' course had "narrow focus" and there was no comparable course in lower division at any of U.C.'s nine campuses. The school rejected the course on men's literature at first, despite the fact that U.C. allows transfer credit for several courses on women's or homosexual and lesbian literature.

Sensing a feminist agenda was at play, Clemens posted a gender discrimination complaint on the website of a group called "NoIndoctrination.org," a nonprofit organization that works to promote open inquiry while opposing the social and political agendas that often infiltrate college classrooms and campuses. In his online complaint, Clemens alleged excessive bias in U.C.'s decision, and characterized the analysts' conclusions about his course as "so patently false and hypocritical that the rejection appears based on gender politics rather than on education."

And at least one academic freedom advocate says she would not be at all surprised if that were the case. Luann Wright, president and founder of NoIndoctrination.org, believes U.C.'s course transfer decisions are often dictated by sociopolitical agendas. That is why she says it is important to keep a close eye on college and university administrators and the policies they enact, and to respond to bias or attempted indoctrination when it occurs.

"What is wrong with a broad-based course on male literature?" Wright asks, and answers: "Nothing" -- unless one has a problem with a course that sails against the prevailing radical feminist winds. But those who believe in open inquiry must stay informed "about what our tax dollars are paying for," she contends, "and if those funds are going to be paying for broad-based literature courses, then they should not deny one just because it's about males."

After Dr. Clemens posted his complaint on December 23, NoIndoctrination.org contacted the university, notifying the board of regents, the president, and other U.C. officials of the professor's allegations. The president of the academic freedom group says the notice informed the college administrators "that the posting was online and gave them an opportunity to rebut any of the specifics in the professor's posting." However, she notes, "They never did rebut anything."

But shortly after the complaint was posted, U.C. made the unusual move of initiating its own appeal of the course's rejection. After further review and an apparent change of heart, the school officials accepted Clemens' course for transfer, making "Literature By and About Men" the only English course in the 109-campus California community college system to survey "multiple sources, enactments, and depictions of maleness, manhood, and masculinity in essays, films, short stories, and poetry either by men or about men."

On January 18, U.C. officials informed Professor Clemens that "Literature By and About Men" would be accepted for transfer after all. He believes publicity played a hand in the school's "change of heart." But regardless of the reasons behind the reversal, Wright is calling the university's about face a victory for gender equity.