European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 29, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Pago 10 columns the stars and stripes saturday september 29, 1990george will instruction takes Back seat to indoctrination at the University of Texas in Austin As on other campuses freshmen arc hooking up their stereos and buckling Down to the business of learning what they should have Learned in High school a particularly i English composition. Thousands of Young texans will take English 306, the Only required course on composition. The simmering controversy about that course illustrates the political tensions that complicate dilute and sometimes defeat higher education today. An attempt was made last summer to give a uniform political topic and text to All sections of 306. It was decided that All sections would read Quot racism and sexism a an anthology of writings with a pronounced left Wing slant. I he text contends that a non White person Quot May discriminate against White people or even hate them Quot hut cannot therefore he called  1 he books editor a new Jersey sociologist sends students to make Quot class analysis of shopping  she explains Quot they go to a boutique mall and a mall for the masses. I have them count How Many Public toilets Are in each and bring Back samples of the toilet paper. It makes class distinctions  after some faculty members protested the subordination of instruction to political indoctrination that text was dropped and the decision about re casting 1 306 was postponed until next year. Hut the pressure is on for political Content thinly disguised under some Antiseptic course title such As a writing about difference a race and gentler. Such skirmishes in the curricula wars occur because campuses have become refuges for radicals who want universities to he As thoroughly politicized As they Are. Like scratchy old records stashed away in the nations attic since 1968, these politicized professors say America is oppressive imposing subservience on various victim groups. The culture is permeated with racism sexism heter sexism and classism oppression of the working class so the first task of universities is  this is done with a diversity education a which often is an attempt to produce intellectual uniformity by promulgating political orthodoxy. Such Quot value clarification a Aims at the moral reformation of Young people who Are presumed to be burdened with Quot false Leon Daniel consciousness As a result of being raised within the Quot Hegemony of americans a a self perpetuating Power  the universities imprimatur is implicitly bestowed on a particular View of american history a political Agenda and specific groups deemed authoritative regarding race sex class Etc. This orthodoxy is reinforced a and enforced a by codes of conduct called a anti harassment codes under which designated groups of victims Are protected from whatever they decide offends them. To cure the offensive Ness of others therapists and thought police arc proliferating on campuses conducting a racial awareness seminars and other forms of a sensitivity  these moral tutors have a professional interest in the exacerbation of group tensions to which University administrations contribute by allowing even encouraging the Balkans nation of Campus life. This is done by encouraging group identities a Black dorms women scenters Gay studies Etc. The status of victim is coveted As a source of moral dignity and political Power so nerves Are rubbed raw by the competitive cultivation of grievances. The More Brittle Campus relations become the More aggressive moral therapy becomes making matters worse. The attempt to pump e306 full of politics is a manifestation of a notion common on campuses every academic activity must have an ameliorative dimension reforming society and assuaging this or that groups grievance. From that idea it is but a Short step Down the Slippery slope to this idea All education All culture is political so it should be explicitly so. And any academic purpose is secondary to political consciousness raising. The classroom is an a Arena of struggle Quot and teaching should be grounded in the understanding that even teaching English composition is a political activity. Recently at the University of Michigan a teachers description of a freshman composition course said that writing skills should be Learned a in connection to social and political contexts so a fall of the readings i have selected focus on latin America with the emphasis on the . Governments usually detrimental role in latin american  she writes of a a dam Ning commentary on the real meaning of . Ideology a of a responsibility for a our governments often brutal treatment of a a and so on. This remember is for a course on composition. But then the teacher is candid about sacrificing writing skills to indoctrination. There will be a lots of Reading a she says. A consequently i will assign considerable sic less writing than one would normally  on other campuses writing requirements Are reduced to the Mere writing of a journal a virtually Stan Ardless exercise in a self expression that a a empowers students. This is regarded As political liberation because rules of grammar and elements of style Are a a political stratagems reinforcing the class Structure to the disadvantage of the underclass which has its own Rich and authentic modes of expression. So it goes on Many campuses. The troubles at Texas Are As yet mild. But the trajectory is visible Down. So is the destination political indoctrination supplanting education. C Washington Post writers group Cincinnati Case is Clear Case of obscenity 1iii ill s s a a. M the Blue noses of Cincinnati a a town As Bland As its Cululi a arc certain they know obscenity when they see it j slut burghers who insist on diluting their Chili with sugar and Cina Inmon and serving it on Spaghetti surely can t know anything about Art. Jury selection May turn out to be the most important phase of the obscenity trial of Cincinnati a contemporary arts Center and its director Dennis Barrie. I he empanelled men and women will be required to decide the difference Between Art and smut. All americans have a stake in their decision since the experts say the Mapplethorpe Case ultimately will affirm constitutional Protection for Art or Force a Legal redefinition of obscenity. I he trial involves seven photographs from an exhibit at the gallery last Spring of the works of Robert Mapplethorpe a new York artist who died last year of aids. Two of the pictures show children with their genitals exposed and five depict homosexual acts. The Center and barn face Misdemeanour charges of pandering obscenity and using children in nudity oriented Onteri the Mapplethorpe show became notorious last year after a protest from Jesse Helms an increasingly prominent Amateur Art critic who has a Day Job As the Republican senator from North Carolina. That protest forced Washington a Corcoran gallery of Art to cancel the exhibit which went on to generate both opposition and support in Cincinnati police and prosecutors stormed into the Center to shoot photographs of their own to make their Case against the gallery and its director. The Art world has rallied to support Barrie who faces up to a year in jail and has vowed to fight for his rights under the first amendment.  Ion i been a a bastion of Morai a spawning ground for the anti abortion movement Cincinnati is the Headquarters of the National coalition against pornography. Charles Keating the executive now jailed in the Sav-the950s scandals cd Cincinnati a War on smut in the City has managed to purge from its streets sex a Sass 5�?T a a rated films and clubs featuring a a to is Baulne or hounded out of town such films As i he last temptation of Christ and a last tango in pans and the musical a ooh Calcutta a for better or worse Cincinnati is the Pool from which jurors will be selected to decide what is Art. Debb Prate during a National controversy ,/.? a fran coins of disputed artworks that threat the existence of the National endowment of Theja a observers believe the juror already has caused self censorship m the arts. To "a"yrs, try to convince Cincinnat Vinison the photographs in the Mapplethorpe Case sex Naii  Ltd standards in one of America s most sexually restrictive cities. Them re psf wtt0r? Bave their work Cut out for Eranus for. Mapplethorpe a More outrageous photo rectum example it shows him with a Bullwhip in his Sodom nor cure mjg it be considered obscene even in or gomorrah not to mention Cincinnati. C United press International