Is an Academic Bill of Rights a Good Idea?

There has been a little bit of discussion about the concept of an "Academic Bill of Rights" on some of the science blogs lately. The latest issue of Nature has a little write-up on the trend being pushed by David Horowitz, and it seems like a bad idea to me.

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Along with introducing protection from discrimination based on political or religious convictions, a bill being proposed in Florida calls on faculty members to refrain from introducing "controversial matter" unrelated to the course subject. It also requires them to present "serious scholarly viewpoints" other than their own.

Although the bill was written primarily with the humanities in mind, it would apply to all academic disciplines. On 22 March, Dennis Baxley (Republican, Ocala), who is backing the bill, said that it would make sure that alternatives to evolution are not shut out of universities.

Alright--so you are a professor at a university. You've spent years researching and defending your particular area of interest. You have to teach undergraduates the basicis of your discipline and hopefully inspire a few to follow in your footsteps. But since some non-experts don't like your field of study, the law mandates that you also provide other perspectives than your own.

Questions: How many alternatives should you have to cover and how much time should they get? Do you have to present the alternatives with a serious look or are you allowed to roll your eyes and speak in a sarcastic tone? Don't most serious scholars cover serious alternatives anyway? Are you allowed to say why your perspective is superior or do you have to make it look like a tie? As students move through their major, do they have to hear about the same alternatives in every class--after all if someone didn't take the introductory course they may have missed the alternative perspectives? Does this apply to graduate courses also? How would this be enforced? Doesn't this whole idea violate conservative principles regarding government intrusion?

Republicans ought to run away from garbage like this.

Baxley, a close ally of Governor Jeb Bush, says the outraged reception is evidence that academics are too inflexible. "I've been called an ass in the school newspaper at the University of Florida," he says, "and that demonstrates exactly what I am talking about."

It also demonstrates what I am talking about.