Free speech for students on college campuses is a widely debated topic, but only recently has free speech for professors been called into question as well. St. Thomas professor Barbara Gorski was named to the Professor Watchlist in fall 2016 for allegedly showing a liberal bias in the classroom.

Turning Point USA, an organization that works to “identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote the principles of fiscal responsibility, free markets, and limited government,” established the Professor Watchlist, a directory of college professors across the nation who “advance a radical agenda.”

The Professor Watchlist has been up since Nov. 21, 2016. Over 170 professors across the country are named, including Gorski. Gorski has been the director of the Business 200 program for the past 23 years.

In the Business 200 program, students must complete 40 hours of community services and complete assignments to reflect on their work.

“One of the assignments for Business 200 is a ‘Bigger Picture’ event,” Gorski said. “It’s to have them look at the systemic or root issues around all the social, economic, political, and cultural issues that converge to create the need for the service they’re doing.”

According to the Professor Watchlist, Gorski is named because she showed a documentary about campaign finance that negatively portrayed the Koch brothers. The site also says she taught students “that success is based upon race, and that they should share the fruits of their ‘privilege,’ and they should feel guilty if they have more money or success than someone else.”

To be put on the Watchlist, complaints must come from a news source. A story about Gorski and her class appeared on CampusReform.org, a news organization that is a project of the Leadership Institute. The Leadership Institute is funded by the Koch brothers, receiving $52,112 from the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation in 2014.

“She said something to the effect that success is based upon race, and as a free-market group we believe that we shouldn’t say people are successful because of their race,” said Turning Point USA Director of Campus Integrity Matt Lamb. “I think it’s based on a variety of factors including making good decisions. If you make these decisions, you will ultimately end up succeeding no matter your race, your gender, your sexual orientation or religion.”

The Professor Watchlist made national news after it first was established. Gorski received a lot of attention after being named, however despite the negative connotation intended by Turning Point USA, the messages Gorski received were overwhelmingly positive.

“I didn’t get any negative emails,” Gorski said. “Nothing. I can’t tell you the amount of positive comments I got. I got emails from across the country from people I didn’t know saying we need to continue to fight for academic freedom in our classrooms.”

The offenses of the professors named on the watchlist range from cases like Gorski’s to stories of professors physically assaulting students.

“The idea is the professor is indicating that they are not open to debate on a topic,” Lamb said. “I can’t necessarily define exactly what radicalism is, but I know it when I hear it. They’re shutting down debate, but they’re not just disagreeing with opponents. They’re labeling them as terrorists, racists, or they hate poor people.”

According to Lamb, one of the main goals of the Watchlist is to make sure conservative students are prepared to debate in the classroom.

“We know we’re not really going to be able to change the professor’s minds, but we should be able to push that other students at least hear our points of view,” Lamb said. “One of the main goals of Turning Point is to make sure that the free-market-limited-government point of view is being heard on college campuses.”

After the political tensions of the presidential election as well as being named on the list, Gorski renewed her commitment to freedom of speech in the classroom.

“It made me recommit to being kind, to listening with care to differences,” Gorski said. “I always felt I did that, but it became a bigger commitment to not let my nonverbals or things I say shut people down. I want people to feel safe to talk.”

After the publication of the watchlist, many college professors across the country gathered together to request to be placed on the list. The list, organized by FreeAcademics, has accumulated over 2,250 signatures.

“I kind of felt badly for the group because they really quite sincerely started this effort of ‘Be careful, these folks are too liberal,’” Gorski said. “It backfired because lots of academics were saying, ‘We need this freedom, we have really conservative people in the classroom too but we don’t try to silence them.’

Gorski’s parents were academics as well, and she credits their discussions at their Sunday family dinners with helping her realize the importance of academic freedom.

“You can’t just have a half-baked idea that you haven’t thought through,” Gorski said. “I think our classrooms are so much richer when all of us come ready to share what we know. If it’s not in the university, where we can bring all these different folks together to talk about stuff, then where do we do that? I think we’ve got to be free.”

Solveig Rennan can be reached at renn6664@stthomas.edu.