Two UMass professors added to the ‘radical watch list’

Professor emeritus (a retired professor) of economics Richard D. Wolff, as well as active professor of communications Sut Jhally, have been added to professor watch list, a website that “exposes and documents college professors that discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom.”

The site is run by “Turning Point USA,” a non-profit organization that, to no one’s surprise, aims to “advance rightist propaganda” to students nationwide. Why it’s okay to promote one side, but be added to a “watch list” if you promote the other is beyond me, but thankfully professor emeritus Richard Wolff is “not fazed” by the matter.

In and interview with the Daily Hampshire Gazette regarding his recent addition to this list, Wolff stated that the list provides “a sad misunderstanding of what education should be and what the job of a professor is.” The bios on the professors provided by the watch list consist of statements saying that Wolff is “the most Marxist economist in America” and quotes Jhally’s “politically loaded” twitter account.

As a current student of Sut Jhally I can say from personal experience that his teaching are not “radical.” Instead he asks us to not blindly accept views imposed upon us, essentially the exact opposite of what professorwatchlist.org is saying. Furthermore, as a site that can be quoted saying in their mission statement on their homepage that they will “continue to fight for free speech,” it seems hypocritical (to say the least) that they have a compiled list of college professors that are too liberal for their liking.

Regardless, it doesn’t seem like either of these professors are going to let their addition to the list affect their views or teaching methods in any way.