The Chronicle of Higher Education posted a recent article about the ordeal that Professor Oneida J. Meranto of Metropolitan State College in Denver is undergoing. To make a long story short, as the article describes,

Last winter two students filed grievances accusing the associate professor of political science at Metropolitan State College of Denver of having a liberal bias and intimidating conservative students. Although college officials found as recently as October that she had done nothing wrong, she received death threats and dozens of hateful e-mail messages ("Hispanics, they should be cooked, and mixed into the Taco Bell menu. They should all be killed.” “Shoot this commie bitch"). She was too frightened to walk to her car alone, so students escorted her.

A few conservative students apparently did not get along well with Professor Meranto’s admittedly liberal perspective, so they went on a vindictive crusade to have her fired or at the least, to tarnish her reputation and make her the poster child with all things that are supposedly wrong with being a “liberal.” Another particularly telling aspect of this episode was the support (or specifically, lack thereof) that she “received from her supposed allies:

The college’s Faculty Federation, an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers, fired off a letter to the university’s president, Raymond N. Kieft, calling on Mr. Culpepper to apologize for his “reckless charges” in writing to Ms. Meranto and asking the administration to write a letter supporting her. Neither was done.

Ms. Meranto complains about the lack of faculty support, particularly from colleagues in Chicano and women’s studies. Vincent C. de Baca, chairman of the Chicano-studies department, writes in an e-mail message: “We had nothing to do with her situation and we want to keep it that way.”

Her story and struggle to keep her personal and professional integrity are particularly nasty. Is it a coincidence that Professor Meranto’s ordeal is occurring at a time when our cultural environment is becoming increasingly conservative, anti-intellectual, and personally vindictive?

I wonder how inspired these students to take such extraordinary measures to retaliate against a professor with whom they had political disagreements? Oh, I don’t know . . . could it be people named . . . George W. Bush or John Ashcroft?