PRESTOPUNDIT

What I found in [History Professor Mary] Corey .. was a woman completely untouched by objectivity, or the desire to achieve it. In her very first lecture, she said, “If you think I’m going to be neutral, I’m not going to be.” And in keeping with her testimony, Corey spent the next ten weeks giving a socialist rendition of history, with no regard for the many other sides of the account.

Her bottom-line version of recent American history was some cocktail of male hegemony, racism, class systems, and the vast right-wing Republican conspiracy. Early in the quarter, she went on a rant against capitalism and the market system, which she defined as “the weird faith that everything will work out fine.” “Capitalism isn’t a lie on purpose. It’s just a lie,” she lectured us, “It’s easy for us to look back and say these people [who believe in markets] are dorks.” And for the climax, “[Capitalists] are swine.… They’re bastard people.” ..

She professes the most offensive opinions as if they were uncontestable facts [e.g.], “The Vietnam War was a big mistake. And, frankly speaking, the good side won.” “The Vietnam War was a big mistake. And, frankly speaking, the good side won.” ..

Do her political prejudices affect her grading too? I certainly was convinced my exams were graded unfairly and I don’t seem to be the only one. A student reviewer on Bruinwalk.com, which evaluates professors, writes of Corey, “The previous review [of Corey’s classroom performance] needs to be altered somewhat. They said that in order to do well, you should attend lectures and take notes. I would say that in order to do well, you should be a left-wing liberal. Conservatives need not apply. Very little tolerance for opposing viewpoints.”