Saturday, August 8, 2020

Economics Professor Isn't Allowed to Open to All Students His Class Critical of Marxism

Karl Marx
A longtime economics professor at Wright State University, Professor Evan Osborne, who has repeatedly requested permission to teach a class critical of Marxism has been turned down by the university administration.

Meanwhile, the university frequently offers courses that praise Marxism, Osborne told The College Fix.

Osborne said the “short version” of his predicament “is that we have an angry, radical-left cohort in the department, they praise Marxism in the classroom, they will not let me teach critically about it, and numerous people in the university have refused to do anything about it.”

While Osborne has recently been given permission to teach the class this fall to honors students, he is not allowed to open the class to the entire student body, he said. Only honors students may enroll in honors courses.

After the class went well, Osborne said he proposed it as an economics elective or as a special topics course that any business student could enroll in.

 “And I do not want to change how economics is taught at WSU, broadly speaking. I just want my academic freedom to offer a different view to also be respected,” he told The Fix via email.

Osborne has taught at Wright State since 1994. He has won a Fulbright teaching grant and several teaching awards during his long tenure.

The economist’s controversial course is titled “Marxism: A History of Theory and Practice.”

According to The Fix, Not only does it assign works written by Karl Marx, but it also looks at the ramifications of the communist political system in places such as Russia and China, as well as how some Western academics have romanticized its bloody, brutal history. It ends with a brief but positive look at capitalism.

Despite the refusal to open this course to the student body, the economics department currently allows students to take a course every spring called Socialist and Radical Economics.

"This class is consistently skeptical of free markets and ‘capitalism,’” Osborne told The Fix. “Given the way Marx is favorably assessed in our curriculum, and Marxism’s actual historical record, I really thought our students deserved an alternate perspective.”

Noye well: The blocking of Osborne's course from being taught is typical radical leftist strategy. They are not in favor of open debate. They are about gaining power and blocking opposing views.

-RW


2 comments:

  1. I have created a petition on behalf of Prof. Osborne from Robert Wenzel's post; it took only a couple minutes. Add your signature at http://chng.it/mQQ4xy7QYX .

    ReplyDelete