Pie Beta Kappa.(ISSUES & INSIGHTS)(EDITORIALS)(Editorial)

Academia: Discourse at our so-called institutions of higher learning has descended to the level of a pie-throwing contest as campus bias again rears its ugly head and liberals choose Bluto over Voltaire as their spiritual leader.

It's been a rough couple of weeks for conservative speakers on college campuses. William Kristol, editor of the conservative magazine The Weekly Standard and former chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle, was greeted with a pie in the face during a speech at Earlham College in Richmond, Ind.

Conservative columnist Ann Coulter was greeted with demonstrators outside and hecklers inside when she tried to give a speech at the University of Kansas. The demonstrators were led by a 45-year-old Lawrence man dressed as a clown.

And commentator Pat Buchanan cut short an appearance at Western Michigan University when a free speech activist doused him with salad dressing.

We don't recall if anyone has ever thrown a pie at Ward Churchill, the Colorado professor and Cherokee wannabe famous for such non-controversial views as saying the victims of terrorism in the World Trade Center were "little Eichmanns" who had it coming. But Coulter's blasting the nation's judicial system for its handling of the Terri Schiavo case was obviously more than anyone could take.

Open and honest debate on the issues of our times is no longer common these days on American campuses. As we've noted, colleges more closely resemble liberal re-education camps where students are taught what to think, not how to reason.

Voltaire, famous for the statement "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" is obviously not high on most collegiate lists of required reading.