The 2001-2002 school year witnessed some of the most despicable displays of political correctness in AIA's 17-year history. From professors welcoming the 9-11 attacks to an academic press publishing a NAMBLA-inspired pro-pedophile rant, Accuracy in Academia's 2001-2002 Politically Correct Top Ten List truly shocks:

10 As the whole nation mourned on the morning September 11, 2001, University of New Mexico Professor Richard Berthold bluntly proclaimed to his students, "Anyone who can blow up the Pentagon would get my vote." Having time to think about it, he repeated his callous assertion to his next class.

9 Berkeley reinstated a for-credit student-taught class called "Male Sexuality." Accuracy in Academia's Campus Report had earlier exposed a class final project where two freshmen walked naked around the city of Berkeley with a video camera. The course featured lectures by porn stars, papers describing students' masturbatory experiences, and visits to sex shops. This year, Berkeley's student paper revealed that at class trips a male instructor had sex with a dancer at a gay strip club and students participated in an orgy.

8 Tenured professor Kenneth Hearlson of Orange Coast College was suspended without a hearing for claiming in class that Muslims who condemn terrorism in the U.S. but not in Israel were inconsistent. Several Muslim students took offense at the discussion, which grew heated. They complained to administrators that Hearlson made bigoted statements and threatened them-a contention that the professor and other students in the class contested-and Hearlson was arbitrarily removed from his teaching duties within two days of the in-class discussion. "It's not a free speech issue," school spokesman Bob Dees maintained. "It's a teacher conduct issue." Despite the existence of audiotapes totally exonerating Hearlson, the school refused to lift his suspenion for the entire semester. Until Hearlson's lawyer publicly released the tapes, the school refused to even admit that the charges against their employee were calumny.

7 A Luntz poll of Ivy League professors revealed a startling political bias. In the 2000 elections, 84% of professors surveyed voted for Al Gore, a mere 9% voted for George Bush. David Horowitz, who commissioned the survey, remarked, "For all the Ivy League's talk of diversity, it is painfully evident from this survey that there is no real diversity when it comes to political attitudes and social values of Ivy League professors."

6 Faculty and administrators at UNLV's school of law shouted down a Marine recruiter trying to make a pitch to interested students. Law professor Mary La France, librarian Matthew Wright, and others crashed Captain Felix Rodriguez's prearranged October 22 meeting with students considering service in the Marines. The group blared a videotape decrying the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on homosexuals, handed out pro-gay literature, and shouted whenever Captain Rodriguez attempted to speak. Regent Tom Kirkland reacted with candor: "We have a group of people over there that really hate the military."

5 Boston College Professor Charles Pinderhughes stalked AIA's Christopher Chow for several blocks and confiscated an audiotape the reporter had made of a session at the Black Panther's 35th reunion held at the University of the District of Columbia. At the conference, Pinderhughes declared that Mao and Stalin never ran any death camps. He benignly called them, "reeducation camps." After the session, Chow questioned Pinderhughes. The professor insisted that notions of mass-killings in China and Russia was simply "right-wing propaganda," and wanted to know what newspaper was asking. "Campus Report," responded Chow. "That's a conservative paper," the outraged Panther said. The BC prof, who had himself taped the session, now demanded Chow's audiotape of the workshop. When Chow refused and tried to leave, Pinderhughes followed Chow into the lobby, shouting, "This guy's a conservative! This guy's with Campus Report!" Chow soon found himself surrounded by an angry mob. Chow left but still Pinderhughes and a cohort followed him. His stalkers cornered him in an apartment building several blocks away, initially taking his personal bag. The bag was returned, but Pnderhughes refused to cede the tape. Conference officals kicked Chow out of the conference.

4 College of New Jersey student Edward Drago was the victim of anti-gay hate crimes at the hands of an unlikely perpetrator: himself. Drago was arrested at the beginning of the school year after police discovered Drago himself had sent himself death threats and hateful anti-gay messages. In addition to providing personal security for Drago, the threats prompted the school to hold two "Safe Zone Socials," cancel classes so that students could attend pro-homosexual teach-ins, and deluge the campus with "Safe Zone" stickers.

3 As administrators defended the burning of the American flag, college officials partook in a crusade of censorship against patriotic expression in the wake of 9-11. At Marquette, undergraduates were blocked from holding a moment of silence around an American flag. The gesture, top officials worried, might alienate foreign students. The site of American flags on university buses so angered Lehigh's vice provost for student affairs that he initially reacted by banning the Flag's display by school employees. "The message was supposed to be that we are sensitive to everyone," held John Smeaton, the administrator who gave the order. Arizona State officials removed an American flag in a school cafeteria after officials worried that it might offend foreign students. Flag burners at Amherst College, on the other hand, were defended by the school's president, who implied that the act of burning the Stars and Stripes might in some way be patriotic.

2 The University of Minnesota Press published an unscholarly screed trumpeting the supposed virtues of sex between adults and children. The book, Harmful to Minors, asserts that "Sex is not harmful to children" and contains a foreword by Joycelyn Elders. "Pedophiles are not generally violent," author Judith Levine maintains, adding, "If there is such a thing as a pedophile at all." The supposedly academic treatise cites the NAMBLA Bulletin and Alfred Kinsey's data on children derived from pedophiles to buttress its claims.

1 On September 22, Zewdalem Kebede overheard a group of Saudi Arabian students at San Diego State praising the 9-11 attacks. Kebede, who speaks fluent Arabic, surprised the students by interrupting their conversation in their native tongue. "Guys, what you are talking about is unfair. How do you feel happy when those five- to six-thousand people are buried in two or three buildings?" Kebede said to the students. "You are proud of [the terrorists]. You should have to feel shame." The ensuing conversation grew heated, with a Saudi accusing the recently naturalized American of objecting to students speaking Arabic. Shortly thereafter, Kebede and the Saudi students parted ways. A half hour later, the campus police came-for Kebede! Soon, the university ordered him to attend a disciplinary meeting and threatened him with expulsion because, it was alleged, he had been "verbally abusive to other students." He received a letter ordering him to respond to his accusers or face sanctions. Outraged, the Ethiopian immigrant went public. SDSU subsequently backed off the charges and concluded the matter with a threat of disciplinary action. "You are admonished to conduct yourself as a responsible member of the campus community in the future," the school's missive warned. That's precisely what some would say that Kebede was doing on September 22, when he castigated those who celebrated mass-murder.