Logic 101

Does the public have a right to know what goes on in state university classrooms? Not according to some of the professors who run them. The United University Professors Union backs a proposed New York law that would exempt classroom teaching materials—books, films, etc.—from the state's Freedom of Information law. In an Orwellian twist, the bill's statement of purpose claims the move will protect the "open forum" of the classroom. Forcing professors to show their teaching materials to outsiders, the argument goes, "creates an unnecessary concern which may limit an instructor's ability to pass on knowledge and ideas to students."