Free speech and free will have been under attack at Fresno City College right under our noses, perhaps for years.  The college is entrenched in debate over an instructor’s academic freedom and students’ rights to an education free of an instructor’s personal beliefs and biases. 

Last fall, a grievance was filed against FCC health instructor Bradley Lopez.  You’ve probably heard of him, since he’s been in the news quite a bit lately.  He’s been accused (among other things)  of teaching his personal religious ideals and discrediting homosexuality as being a mental illness, as if his beliefs were empirical fact. 

If the accusations are true, then there is no way that kind of instruction could be accepted here.  Our administration says it does not condone this kind of behavior.  I fully support instructors bringing their experience and opinions into the topics they teach, but not in a way that overrides the education or lifestyles of the students. 

Nobody on campus should be afraid of voicing their beliefs, be they teacher or student.  A teacher’s opinions and experience can be vital to a better education as long as they do not stray too far from the class’ guidelines.  But then, how far is too far?  And what should be done against those who lecture against the curriculum, as Lopez is accused of having done? 

What I believe is that an individual’s personal beliefs should be kept to oneself when that individual knows others will be hurt by said beliefs.  It is something I see as common courtesy.  Believe whatever you want, but do so without infringing on others’ rights to choose their own lifestyles.  It is a philosophy I think most can agree with. 

Most students are fortunate enough to have teachers that set better examples than this.  The whole fiasco shines a negative light on the college at large, but in the end, this is a matter of an individual and his audience.  Fresno City College is an excellent

institution, and I hope Lopez’ scandal does not give any student – past, present or future – a false image of the quality of education offered here.  The words and deeds of a few should not reflect the quality of the college as a whole.  At the very least, we must find a workable solution.

An instructor can easily inject his/her views into a lecture in order to benefit the student’s learning experience, but the line between academic freedom and indoctrination is a thin one that each of us have to walk carefully.  There must be a balance.  Without the proper judgment, anyone can easily fall into a pit such as this one.  No teacher should have to suffer the scandal, and no student should be forced into biased, irrelevant education. 

In a perfect world…  well, I’ll leave that opinion to you.