Three separate professors have found themselves the subjects of “gotcha” YouTube segments in recent days.
While the cases differ widely, faculty members at Cornell University, Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge and the University of Central Florida have all seen pieces of their lectures go viral in the last several weeks. Taken collectively, the carefully edited clips play up familiar stereotypes about faculty: there’s the quick-tempered bore (Cornell), the liberal indoctrinator (Louisiana State) and the lazy test-recycler (Central Florida).
Read more here.
The alleged “liberal indoctrinator” is Bradley Schaefer, a professor of physics and astronomy at Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge, who was captured in a video seeming to admonish students who don’t support regulating carbon emissions. The video, posted on the conservative website Campus Reform, was very selectively edited. Campus Reform’s agenda is to prove that professors are biased towards left-wing positions and use classroom time to indoctrinate students.
The video clip was edited by Campus Reform to omit the part of the lecture in which Prof. Schaefer attacked the position of environmentalists. It turns out that Schaefer divided the students in his classroom based on their self-identified political views (i.e., those who favour stringent limits on GHG emissions and those who are skeptical about global warming). He then set about attacking the assumptions of both groups. This is a classic intellectual exercise which has been done by professors for decades. Schaeffer’s aim was to play devil’s advocate and to force students of every political persuasion to defend their views on how to deal with climate change.
The Past Speaks 
I was in the class. He was not playing devil’s advocate.
Full video: http://vimeo.com/16649140
He equated banning the combustible engine with doubting global warming. In the middle were things like banning SUVS, foreign aid for countries that limit carbon dioxide.
Ignoring the political crazy, Youtube can be a great way to get interesting messages out from faculty. An old grad school buddy of mine, a chemistry prof at Manitoba, is featured on his university’s Youtube channel, explaining the science of road salting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALTHlPfP-2A
This is … disturbing. I’ve caught students recording my lectures before – but since it was a generally value-neutral “North America since 1860,” it was pretty obvious it was to crib notes for an exam. But the huge first-year course in Sustainability tends to discuss, and sometimes criticize or endorse, certain policies (ie. the tar sands = not smart). The students feel free to challenge us, as a Norwegian student did in defense of minke whaling after our marine biologist lectured on whale populations. That’s the kind of dialogue the classroom is for.
In other vein, I just had coffee with a former student who relayed this story: on the first day of class, a former colleague of mine self-identified as a socialist. The student dropped the class – not because she disliked the instructor or her politics, but because she didn’t want the instructor herself to think it important enough to mention. But all she did was drop the class – not Youtube it. Isn’t it a bit ironic that conservatives – who ostensibly would hold more for individual responsibility & action (a position with which I often agree!) – wouldn’t endorse that option?
Claire. Putting lectures online so students can use them to prepare for the final exam is a good idea. In fact, I’m using that technology myself this year. But there is big difference between a prof deciding to put their lectures online versus someone being recorded without their consent.