Yale Commencement

Yale University commencement in New Haven, Conn., in 2013. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

(Jessica Hill)

Conservatives have complained about liberal college professors for decades. William F. Buckley Jr. made his name in 1951 by declaring Yale University, his alma mater, to be anti-capitalist and unchristian. "What is the 1) ethical, 2) philosophical, or 3) epistemological argument for requiring continued tolerance of ideas whose discrediting it is the purpose of education to effect?" he wrote. "What ethical code (in the Bible? in Plato? Kant? Hume?) requires 'honest respect' for any divergent conviction?"

Such attitudes have taken on new power with the election of Donald Trump, who's said he's going to "open up our libel laws" to punish critical newspapers and has denounced the cast of "Hamilton" for offering a post-performance message to Vice President-elect Mike Pence.

So it should come as no surprise to academics that a conservative activist group has launched the "Professor Watchlist."

Turning Point USA, the organization behind the watch list, argues that "students, parents, and alumni deserve to know the specific incidents and names of professors that advance a radical agenda in lecture halls."

The "Professor Watchlist" website asks students and others to "expose and document college professors who discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom." It provides an easy-to-fill-out form in which tipsters are directed to "describe what this professor did that may justify adding him/her to the Professor Watch List."

Among the academics highlighted on the site: Temple University political science professor Joseph Schwartz, allegedly for crashing "a College Republican discussion with a representative from Pennsylvania Right to Work Defense and Education Foundation," and Rutgers University gender and Africana studies professor Brittney Cooper for supposedly saying "white racism is to blame for Brexit."

Schwartz, who admits in his university biography to being "active on the democratic left," is the author of the award-winning "The Future of Democratic Equality: Reconstructing Social Solidarity in a Fragmented United States." Cooper is working on a book titled "Race Women: Gender and the Making of a Black Public Intellectual Tradition."

Proponents of academic freedom are hitting back at the watch list with mockery via the Twitter hashtag #trollprofwatchlist.

was anyone else a little disappointed to not find their name on professorwatchlist? #TrollProfWatchList #lifegoals — TheAdjunctNextDoor (@AdjunctNextDoor) November 21, 2016

They're even adding names to the list that the site's creators might consider inappropriate.

Somebody has to do the obvious one . . . #trollprofwatchlist pic.twitter.com/yQzFjdjbqo — Melanie Mallon (@MelMall) November 22, 2016

-- Douglas Perry