At California State University’s Dominguez Hills campus (CSUDH), students in an introductory political science class called American Institutions have been given a syllabus that is nothing short of troubling.
The syllabus — from Dr. Brooke Mascagni, a lecturer in political science at the school — refers to the sitting president of the United States as a “white supremacist, misogynist, narcissistic, volatile, belligerent, uninformed, stubborn, failed businessman and orange reality star,” as Campus Reform reported.
On its website, the college describes the course as “a study of contemporary political institutions, with emphasis on the philosophy, structure, and behavior of the American political system, including the State of California.”
It adds that the spring 2018 three-hour course “meets [a] state requirement in U.S. Constitution and California state and local government.”
But a student described the course’s obvious bias as “unbelievably blatant,” and noted that he (or she — the student’s identity wasn’t released) had encountered liberal professors in the past but nothing to the extent of this Politics 101 course.
The same student described responses by other classmates this way: “The majority of the class was either completely silent, or jaws were dropped.”
Curiously, in the “About me” section of Mascagni’s syllabus, the professor says she’s teaching the class “to promote critical thinking about U.S. political institutions, processes, and norms.” So, in her view, critical thought apparently involves espousing the notion that “the president of the United States won the 2016 election by appealing to bigotry and hatred,” as she put it.
Related: Conservative Mom Goes Head-to-Head with Liberally Biased Teacher
In a less-than-believable bid to express some form of helpfulness to students eager to participate in the political process, the professor added, “Stop by my office hours if you … would like to become more involved in the political process, such as working on a political campaign or community organizing.”
It’s not hard to guess which side of the political aisle her students would be encouraged to support.
Related: The Anti-White Bias on Campus Couldn’t Be Clearer
LifeZette reached out to the professor and the school about the course, but did not hear back prior to publication.
The college is publicly funded, of course: The California State University system calls itself “the people’s university” and receives more than half its revenue from “the state of California through taxpayer contributions,” as it points out on its website. “The remainder comes from tuition paid by students and their families.” Cal State Dominguez, located in the city of Carson, is a public university within the 23-school California State University system; it was founded in 1960.
Also of interest: This professor lists the following “projects” for herself on a bio page:
- “Combating Sexual Violence as an Engaged Scholar: An Intersectional Analysis”
- “Marijuana Legalization at the Ballot Box”
- “Fostering Civic Engagement of College Students through Mandatory Participation in Political Campaigns”
Michele Blood is a freelance writer based in Flemington, New Jersey, and a regular contributor to LifeZette.
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