Professor Watchlist
Database of academics claimed to discriminate against conservative students / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Professor Watchlist?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
Professor Watchlist is a website, run by conservative advocacy organization Turning Point USA, that lists academic staff which Turning Point believes "discriminate against conservative students, promote anti-American values and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom."[1] It was launched in 2016 and had listed about 200 professors by December of that year.[2][3] The website erroneously claimed that Hunter Biden would "assist in lecturing a course" at Tulane University in the fall semester of 2021.[4][5]
Responses to the site include the American Association of University Professors and The New York Times raising fears that it threatens academic freedoms by harassing and intimidating staff, conservative magazine National Review describing it as an "irritable gesture" of victimhood by conservatives, and concerns about the safety and welfare of staff following a trend of threatening behaviour and communication, including rape and death threats, being sent to listed faculty.[6][7][8][9][10]
In December 2016, 1500 professors and faculty from across the globe petitioned to have their name added to the list in solidarity with academics who had been targeted and intimidated following their listing, with the message that the listed are “the sort of company we wish to keep.”[11] Turning Point UK also maintains a similar site, Education Watch, which has been described as "McCarthyism in the UK", despite gaining support from Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg and Home Secretary Priti Patel. The Council for the Defence of the British Universities has also called Education Watch "populist rightwing propaganda".[10]