JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Glendale, plans on making course materials at public universities more accessible to the public.
Schmitt announced the series of reforms to higher education Wednesday, which would make all course materials, including syllabi, for courses taught at state-funded universities and colleges available to the public.
The move comes after the publicization of Melissa Click, a professor of communications at the University of Missouri, and the role she played in the Concerned Student 1950 protests that ousted former University President Tim Wolfe from office. Click was involved in an altercation with a photojournalism student, specifically attempting to stop him from taking pictures.
Infringement of First Amendment principles aside, the enhanced scrutiny placed on Click revealed course subjects and research projects that, to some outside observers, appear flippant and unnecessary. Her faculty webpage states that her “current research projects involve 50 Shades of Grey readers, the impact of social media in fans’ relationship with Lady Gaga, masculinity and male fans, messages about class and food in reality television programming, and messages about work in children’s television programs.”
Schmitt believes there should exist a level of public oversight over that kind of coursework, while stressing that this is not an infringement on academic integrity.
“We are not telling a professor how to teach a course, but that professor should be transparent about what he or she is conveying to our students,” he said in a statement. “The taxpayers of Missouri spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year to fund our colleges and universities,” Schmitt said. “At a minimum, the taxpayers should know what topics professors are teaching our students and what resources they are using.”
Another reform Schmitt wants to tout would be an annual audit of the University of Missouri System and the hundreds of millions of dollars it takes in from the state each year.
“Auditing the University of Missouri System is about transparency,” Schmitt said. “We are entrusting university administrators with a lot of money and we expect that investment to be converted into a world-class university producing world-class graduates. We have to be to sure the administrators are spending our tax dollars wisely.”
