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Volume 27, Issue 6, September 16, 2004

Opinion

Spies, lies, and two scheming guys

mug
Joel Tagert
Columnist

This week I offer you a sordid tale of two amoral young men, one twisted state senator, and the professor they targeted to advance their political careers. It’s a spy story loaded with deception, death threats, and political intrigue.

We begin, once again, with George Culpepper, former chairman and founding member of the Auraria College Republicans.

As head of the ACR, George gained some notoriety for attacking Metro political science professor Oneida Meranto, claiming she tried to throw the College Republicans out of Metro’s Political Science Association. This claim was total bullshit, as the college later proclaimed.

However, Culpepper also claimed he had dropped one of Meranto’s classes because he thought he wouldn’t be graded fairly. When the Denver Post questioned Meranto about this, she replied that she thought Culpepper had dropped her class because he hadn’t done the work necessary for the course.

Alas, Meranto had fallen into a cheap trap. Culpepper complained that under a federal statute, teachers couldn’t discuss a student’s grades without that student’s permission. Meranto had slipped, and the college recently issued a formal reprimand.

A political cartoon depicting President Bush handing out guns to congress

Now, honestly, I don’t think Culpepper is smart enough to devise this little plot on his own. Lucky for him, he’s got lots of unscrupulous friends. At the time, he was interning for State Sen. John Andrews, who, coincidentally enough, called an informal senate hearing for the poor college conservatives to cry about how hard they have it on campus. This coordinated nicely with Rep. Shawn Mitchell’s proposal for a “Student Bill of Rights,” which sought to limit what professors could say in their classrooms.

Mitchell’s bill struggled in the legislature, so to save face Mitchell wrangled a compromise with some prominent college presidents: he would drop his censorious bill, and they would “investigate” claims of discrimination against conservatives on campus. Here at Metro, a panel to investigate such claims was set up with—who else?—Culpepper at its head.

Things were looking up for George. With his name now in the papers, Culpepper resigned his post with the ACR to become chair of the Colorado College Republicans.

The lesson is: it pays to persecute.

If only our story ended here; but the campus GOPers were determined to push their luck. Enter College Republican William Pierce.

As reported in last week’s Met, Pierce has filed a complaint with the Equal Opportunity Office against Meranto, claiming she attacked College Republicans in her class.

Pierce’s alacrity is truly remarkable. It took Culpepper weeks to decide to attack Meranto. But not the fearless Mr. Pierce. He wrote a complaint on the very first day of class.

“Wait, wait,” you cry. “Maybe you’re being unfair. Maybe the problem here is Meranto. Maybe she really is as bad as these conservatives claim. Maybe she didn’t learn her lesson the first time, and just keeps on attacking Republicans like a madwoman.”

Right. Or maybe—just maybe—Pierce registered for Meranto’s class for the sole purpose of filing a complaint against her, thereby advancing his and his party’s interests. And maybe —just maybe—he did it at the behest of the very person seeking Meranto’s head last semester: Culpepper.

But enough from me. Let Culpepper speak for himself. Here’s something he wrote on Creative Resistance’s password-protected MetroConnect message board on August 12, 2004:

“All I know is Dr. Meranto has ONE chance to screw up, which she will, and she is gone. (...) Rest assured, someone IS in her class that I asked to sign up for to watch over her. One mistake and she’s gone...Who’s next???”

Wow. That’s pretty incriminating. But it wasn’t enough for dear George. He had to shoot his mouth off some more on the first day of school, Aug. 23, even as Pierce was writing his complaint:

“(...) As stated before, the fun begins TODAY! I can’t wait to hear the report of how Dr. Meranto is doing in her class. One more and ...BYE BYE! Finally, it is nice to see I have gotten under your skin! WE WILL BE WATCHING!”

And of course, with the dastardly deed done, what’s left but to gloat? Here’s Culpepper on Sept. 7:

“I guess you will never know if someone was planted or not. Funny thing is... A LOT OF PEOPLE REACTED TO IT! HHHmmmmmm.....”

At this point, you might wonder why anyone would go this far in persecuting a professor. Why would someone risk his or her reputation on such a ploy? Why would anyone want to cause such pain to Meranto, who, with her name posted on right-wing Websites, has received death threats?

Coming full circle, we return to Sen. John Andrews. Last Thursday, Andrews held a hearing at which a few conservative students railed against their hateful liberal professors. Among them—no surprise here—was William Pierce.

The right finds vilifying professors useful in several ways: it distracts from higher ed’s budget crisis, which they are responsible for; it aids them in their quest to privatize schools; it discourages progressive professors from teaching the truth and adds to the atmosphere of fear and paranoia they depend on.

Welcome to the McCarthyist State College. of Denver.