During an interview with CBS News on Tuesday, Assumption University President Greg Weiner said that professors do have an issue with introducing unrelated issues, like climate change, into classes where that would have nothing to do with the class, which creates “an implicit pressure to conform.”
While discussing a survey on what subjects professors mention in their classes, Weiner stated, “One of the special responsibilities, in addition to promoting elevated debate and respectful hearing of different views, is to understand that there’s a power dynamic between teacher and student. And even if you’re doing it innocently or you’re not intending to influence students, if you are teaching a class that has, for example, nothing to do with politics or public policy and you introduce that, from either direction, right, left, or center, there is an implicit pressure to conform.”
He added, “I believe climate change is a fact. There are reasonable debates on how to respond to it, but my assumption would be that it’s relevant to quite a few college classes, but I have my doubts as to whether it’s as many as the survey said. The survey had several other examples of compelling issues, all of which deserve discussion, but, are, apparently, according to the respondents of the survey, being taught across curricula, not simply in classes where they apply.”
Weiner also stated that schools need to be independent from government interference.
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