Universities, Diversity and Dr. Limbaugh

Dr. Leonard M. Adleman, a professor at the University of Southern California, went way out on a limb and nominated Rush Limbaugh to receive an honorary doctors degree, according to an article in the L.A. Daily News

''Rush Limbaugh has engendered epochal changes in politics and the media. He has accomplished this in the noblest of ways, through speech and the power of his ideas. Mr. Limbaugh began his career as a radio talk-show host in Sacramento in 1984. He espoused ideas that were conservative and in clear opposition to the dominant ideas of the time. Perhaps because of the persuasiveness of Mr. Limbaugh's ideas or because they resonated with the unspoken beliefs of a number of Americans, his audience grew. Today, he has the largest audience of any talk show host (said to be in excess of 20 million people per week) and his ideas reverberate throughout our society.

''Mr. Limbaugh is a three-time recipient of the National Association of Broadcasters' Marconi Radio Award for Syndicated Radio Personality of the Year. In 1993, he was inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters' Broadcasting Hall of Fame.

''In 1994, an American electorate, transformed by ideas that Mr. Limbaugh championed, gave control of Congress to the Republicans for the first time in 40 years. That year, Republican congressmen held a ceremony for Mr. Limbaugh and declared him an 'honorary member of Congress.' The recent re-election of President Bush suggests that this transformation continues. One of Mr. Limbaugh's major themes through the years has been liberal bias in the 'mainstream' media. His focus on this theme has made him the target of incessant condemnation. Nonetheless, he has persevered and it now appears that his view is prevailing. As the recent debacle at CBS shows, the media is in the process of major change. Ideally, the American people will profit from a reconstituted media that will act more perfectly as a marketplace for ideas.''

But there is a bigger reason why I support giving him an honorary degree: Because I value intellectual diversity.

Regrettably, the university declined to offer Limbaugh a degree. As best I can determine, no university has honored him in this way. On the other hand, such presumably liberal media luminaries as Dan Rather, Chris Matthews, Judy Woodruff, Bill Moyers, Terry Gross, Paul Krugman and Peter Arnett have received many honorary degrees from the nation's universities.

Now before you label me as a right-wing ideologue, let me present my credentials as a centrist. Limbaugh has well-known positions on the following issues: abortion, capital punishment, affirmative action, prayer in school, gun control, the Iraq war. I disagree with him on half of these.

But intellectual diversity has all but vanished from America's campuses. We are failing in our duty to provide our students with a broad spectrum of ideas from which to choose. Honoring Limbaugh, or someone like him, would help to make the academy more intellectually diverse.

Kudos to Dr. Adleman for his temerity in nominating Rush. I hope he's tenured! Be sure to check out the entire piece.