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Editorial: Shirking controversy
UC missteps undermine role of university
Published 12:00 am PDT Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Story appeared in EDITORIALS section, Page B6
Universities are supposed to exist as a forum for inquiry and wide-open debate. Diverse viewpoints and dissent are expressed and challenged -- not censored. Two events in one week undermine that tradition in the University of California system.
When a group of UC Davis faculty circulated a petition, the Board of Regents rescinded a speaking invitation to Lawrence Summers, former president of Harvard University and treasury secretary under President Clinton. His sin? Speaking about women in science and engineering at a 2005 conference, Summers likened the situation to white men being underrepresented in the National Basketball Association. He suggested that women are less likely to choose 80-hour-a-week jobs and there is "different availability of aptitude at the high end." He hoped he had provoked "thought on this question" and "marshalling of evidence to contradict" his remarks.
Instead of taking up that invitation, too many would simply silence him.
That is shameful enough. Worse is the saga of California's first public school of law south of Los Angeles, scheduled to open in 2009. UC Irvine sought a premier dean, so on Sept. 4 it hired Erwin Chemerinsky, a renowned constitutional scholar who taught 21 years at the University of Southern California Law School before moving to Duke. Chemerinsky is active, writing articles, testifying before Congress, arguing cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, serving on commissions.
The school's selection of anything but a low-profile dean had consequences. Faced with an anti-Chemerinsky campaign by two dozen people, UC Irvine withdrew the offer on Sept. 11. Legal scholars protested, and there was a widespread outcry about UC Irvine Chancellor Michael Drake's decision. This week Drake said Chemerinsky would get the job.
Meeting in Davis this week, the regents need to affirm Chemerinsky's appointment and reinvite Summers to speak on issues facing higher education. Small but vocal minorities should not be allowed to halt a free trade in ideas.
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