Your article regarding the Democracy Commitment initiative was disheartening, because one of the fundamental tenets behind any true such concept on a college campus involves students being able to get all sides of a political argument presented in a fair and complete manner. At De Anza, like so many other college campuses, the ability of students to be presented with a complete honest account of political issues is minimal at best. The political leanings of many of the faculty are one dimensional, with some going so far as to advocate political positions and “compel” political actions in their classes.

Even President Murphy has a political background that is far to one side of the political spectrum, and there has been no visible evidence during his tenure that there has been any attempt to get a complete discussion involving people across the political spectrum on key ideas.

I have no faith in either President Murphy or this initiative to fix our fundamental failing, our inability to present students complete information (either unbiased or showing biases on multiple sides) in a way that an honest intellectual discussion can take place. My fear is that this initiative, like so many other political dealings on campus, will be simply one more way for the administration and a plethora of faculty members to indoctrinate our students into taking specific political actions meant to advance a given political agenda. I wish I were wrong, but nothing in our history shows that we have the kind of leadership on political issues to create truly “informed” students, and anything less will actually continue to do damage to our republic.

Scott Peterson

Math Instructor

De Anza College