A professor at Illinois Central College recently exposed his bias on full display in a history class assignment, dubbing President Trump as “not fit for the office of the Presidency,” and a “pathological liar,” while threatening to fail a student who wrote about Trump in a positive light.
Troy Daugherty, a professor of American History at ICC, sent a class-wide email informing students of an upcoming paper assignment on President Trump – giving them an option to write a research paper on the president, or a book review.
Daugherty recommends the class read John Bolton’s latest book The Room Where It Happened, because it “confirms for anyone interested that Donald J. Trump is not fit for the office of the Presidency.” He also suggests James Comey’s latest book, as well as Bob Woodward’s and Mary Trump’s– a plethora of anti-Trump books.
He goes on to mention that if students decide to cover The Art of the Deal, that they must “conduct a bit of outside research to see what the co-author has since written about the book itself and Trump.”
If students decided instead to do a research paper on some aspect of President Trump’s life, Daugherty encourages them to write about being a “pathological liar” or “sexual predator,” and notes that students must first run their topic by him.
So, that’s exactly what one brave conservative student did.
The student, who wishes to remain anonymous, submitted this course assignment and correspondence to YAF through our Campus Bias Tip Line. They reached out to the professor noting their desire to write about Trump’s view on abortion, adding “I am wondering if our differences will affect my grade in the class.”
The professor approved the student’s topic, but with a caveat–if the student wrote about Trump’s view on abortion without putting it into the entirely negative context clearly desired by the professor, he threatened, “you will get an F.”
Whatever your opinion is of President Trump, surely it is a professor’s job to inspire students to creatively and analytically come to their own conclusions regarding subjects and people. Dictating one way of thinking helps no one and certainly is not education.
YAF reached out to Illinois Central College for comment, but did not receive a response.
This professor’s gross abuse of power is unfit for higher education. To force his views onto his class and threaten them with failing if they do not meet his haphazard, subjective standards is academic malpractice. College professors should be encouraging students to explore how to think, not what to think–and by forcing his views on the president in an introductory email to the class, students were put on notice that any disagreements in the class would be penalized.
Are you facing bias or discrimination for being a conservative? Submit a tip to YAF’s Campus Bias Tip Line.
