Alumni Spying on UCLA Professors

As reported in the LA Times today, a group of UCLA alums are paying cash to students to report on instructors who are "abusive, one-sided or off-topic."

The year-old Bruin Alumni Assn. says its "Exposing UCLA's Radical Professors" initiative takes aim at faculty "actively proselytizing their extreme views in the classroom, whether or not the commentary is relevant to the class topic." Although the group says it is concerned about radical professors of any political stripe, it has named an initial "Dirty 30" of teachers it identifies with left-wing or liberal causes.

Some of the instructors mentioned accuse the association of conducting a witch hunt that threatens to harm the teaching atmosphere, and at least one of the group's advisory board members has resigned because he considers the bounty offers inappropriate. The university said it will warn the association that selling copies of professors' lectures would violate campus rules and raise copyright issues.

I couldn't work up a sob for these poor, poorly treated and misunderstood professors if I squeezed my tear ducts with a pliers. If you don't like being surveilled doing your state-funded work, work in the private sector.