Review: Book cites professor as ‘dangerous’

Story by: A.J. Eaton

Contributor to The Shorthorn

A political science professor was named as one of America’s most dangerous professors in a new book, a designation that the professor disputes.

David Horowitz’s book The Professors listed 101 professors, and political science professor Jose Angel Gutierrez is among them.

Horowitz, formally a liberal Marxist, is now the right-wing face of FrontPage Magazine, a publication dedicated to conservative ideals. He is also the author of three New York Times best-sellers and founder of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture.

Horowitz said he named Gutierrez because he is a founding member of La Raza Unida, an organization dedicated to the equal treatment of Latinos and Mexico’s entitlement to the Southwest. He is also a founding member of the Mexican American Youth Organization and has been criticized in the past for some of his political views.

Horowitz gives a critique in The Professors of Gutierrez’s book, A Chicano Manual on How to Handle Gringos, released in 1974, citing it as “not [a] scholarly book but political propaganda, and an example of crude racism.” He points out that the ratio of left- to right-wing professors in colleges has traditionally been nine to one, but that now that ratio is around 30 to 1.

“In the ’60s, a lot of political activists stayed in school to get degrees and dodge the draft. They continued to stay there and took control of hiring committees. These professors are not scholars or academics,” Horowitz said.

Horowitz says the employment of Gutierrez reflects poorly on the university.

When asked why he thought he made the list, Gutierrez said that he challenges the status quo, and people who do that will always be a target.

“People have congratulated me for making the list. I’ve gotten some hate mail, but the ratio is about eight congratulations to one hate mail,” he said. “To be on this list upgrades me.”

Gutierrez said Horowitz has credibility only among right-wing reactionaries and that his ideas are dangerous to the principles of the liberal university.

“He [Horowitz] is trying to curtail academic freedom and different viewpoints.” Gutierrez said. “He is really dangerous.”

Horowitz holds the view that universities across the country are biased against conservatives. However, one student does not share this opinion.

“I think we have a varying mix of liberals and conservatives here. Professor Gutierrez got his students to learn. That’s the important thing,” political science senior James Urban said.

UTA’s stance on Gutierrez’s political opinions is that they may not agree with his views, but he is entitled to his viewpoint.

“There are times when some of us at UT-Arlington do not agree with some opinions offered by our fellow faculty, staff and students, but we should support their right to express those opinions. That same right of free speech applies to everyone and protects us from government censorship or persecution or retribution,” Public Affairs Director Bob Wright said.

The Political Science Department declined to comment.