4.2.12 WC: 191694 Although I always try to learn from my evaluations, I refused to be bullied into abandoning a teaching style that I believe is best designed to stimulate thinking. It takes no courage for me to exercise my academic freedom, since I have tenure. But if I were an untenured assistant professor, would I have the courage to risk the wrath of the P.C. cops? Are other, less established, teachers being coerced into changing their teaching by the fear of negative evaluations, which can be fatal to tenure? You bet they are, and it poses a real danger to academic freedom and good education. One criminal law professor told me that he searches for casebooks that don’t cover rape: “If it’s covered in the book and I skip it, I get criticized. And if I discuss it, I get criticized. This way I can blame it on the book.” Talk about lack of courage! I told the students who threatened to charge me with sexual harassment to go ahead and make my day. I would love to defend against such a charge, by demonstrating their misuse of the serious moral crime of real sexual harassment. I have represented women who have experienced real sexual harassment—including a graduate student who was explicitly told by her faculty advisor that the quality of her recommendation would depend on whether she slept with him—and I understand the enormous pain it can cause. In that case of quid pro quo sexual harassment, there was no grey area. The professor was as clear as could be. The student told me that she had really thought the professor liked her because of the excellent work she had done for him. Now she wasn’t sure. She was devastated. Her self confidence was shattered. She wanted justice. She also wanted to make sure that her career as an academic would not be hurt by her refusal to “go along” with the offer of a good recommendation. That was real sexual harassment! Listening to views about rape that are different from your own isn’t sexual harassment. It’s called education. I advised