5 N.J. professors make conservative group's 'watchlist'

The Professor Watchlist includes nearly 200 college faculty members who allegedly advance "leftist" views and "radical agendas."

PRINCETON -- When Peter Singer heard a conservative group put out a new watchlist singling out college professors with "leftist" and "radical agendas," the veteran Princeton University professor was not surprised to hear he was on it.

Singer, a professor of bioethics, has come under fire in the past for his controversial views on animal rights, euthanasia and the morals of killing disabled babies.

He is one of five professors from New Jersey universities listed on the Professor Watchlist released last week by Turning Point USA, a non-profit conservative group. The list of nearly 200 professors is designed to "expose and document college professors who discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom," according to the website.

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Critics have said the list is nothing more than a biased collection of news clips and innuendo meant to smear liberal professors.

Peter Singer is a bioethics professor at Princeton University. (Denise Applewhite) 

Some academics have said the list is a threat to academic freedom and a reflection of the troubling political climate in the wake of the election of Republican Donald Trump. Other professors have mocked the list or taken pride in being named to it.

Singer, the only professor on the list from Princeton, said he is not concerned about his inclusion on the list.

"Of course I have radical views on issues," Singer said from his campus office. "To have radical views does not necessarily mean trying to indoctrinate students into my views."

Singer, who teaches ethics and moral philosophy, has faced campus protests in the past for arguing animals have rights and that it is morally acceptable to euthanize disabled infants. But he says he requires students to read opposing arguments in his classes and has teaching assistants who argue opposite views.

The creators of the Professor Watchlist don't seem to understand that opposing viewpoints can coexist on a college campus, Singer said. Conservative groups have singled out professors in the past, though little has come of it.

"To me, this is nothing new," Singer said. "It comes and goes and I think we'll outlast it."

At Rutgers University, four professor were named to the list.

Norman Markowitz, a veteran history professor at Rutgers, was placed on the list for writing and teaching about communism from a "Marxist perspective," the site said.

Rutgers History Professor Norman Markowitz speaks at a 2011 University Senate meeting on the New Brunswick campus. (Tony Kurdzuk | The Star-Ledger) 

"Personally, I regard being included on such a list as a badge of honor -- like being on Richard Nixon's 'list,' which existed when I first came to Rutgers," Markowitz said via email.

He compared the Professor Watchlist to the lists created by the House Un-American Activities Committee as it tried to investigate allegedly disloyal Americans.

"The strategy was first defamation and second guilt by association," Markowitz said.

Markowitz, who has been teaching at Rutgers since 1971, says he tells students at the beginning of each course that he will "teach from a Marxist perspective."

"I tell students in the first class that I do not expect them to agree with me and will never reward or punish with grades any student who agrees or disagrees with me in my class lectures," Markowitz said.

The other three Rutgers professors named to the Professor Watchlist did not respond to requests to comment.

When asked about the watchlist, Rutgers officials replied with a statement from President Robert Barchi released earlier this year supporting academic freedom.

"While I will not defend the content of every opinion expressed by every member of our academic community, or of speakers who we invite to our campus, I will defend their right to speak freely. That freedom is fundamental to our university, our society and our nation," Barchi said.

Turning Point USA is a conservative group that is dedicated to promoting "free markets" and "limited government." Its founder, Charlie Kirk, spoke at the Republican National Convention.

Kirk, who is in his 20s, founded the group a few years ago with the financial backing of wealthy conservative benefactors. The group focuses on millennials and says it has supporters on hundreds of college campuses. 

Most of the information on the Professor Watchlist comes from news reports about professors. The website includes a form for users to submit the names of professors who "advance leftist propaganda in the classroom."

Some students and professors have mocked the watchlist on social media sites using the hashtag #trollprofwatchlist. They have used the website's form to nominate fictional professors to the list, including Indiana Jones, Professor Xavier from the X-Men comic books and Professor Albus Dumbledore from the Harry Potter series.

On its website, Turning Point USA says the watchlist is not designed to censor college professors.

"TPUSA will continue to fight for free speech and the right for professors to say whatever they wish ; however students, parents, and alumni deserve to know the specific incidents and names of professors that advance a radical agenda in lecture halls," the site says.