The conservative activist who is waging a campaign against what he contends are UCLA's "radical professors" Monday withdrew his offer to pay students bounties of up to $100 per class to provide information about their teachers. But he pledged to continue his effort with unpaid volunteers.
The $100 offer enabled activist Andrew Jones to create a national media stir last week but also drew heavy criticism from faculty who complained of a "witch hunt." The furor prompted the resignation of several prominent members of his organization's advisory board.
Jones, the president and sole employee of the fledgling Bruin Alumni Assn. and a former leader of the student Bruin Republicans, said the payment offer had become "a distraction from the real problem, which has been all along the issue of classroom indoctrination by UCLA professors."
He vowed to keep his campaign alive without payments to students, saying that it is necessary to counter leftist instructors who improperly push their opinions on students. Jones said, however, that UCLA's assertions that selling instructors' materials would violate University of California policy and raise copyright infringement issues has had "a chilling effect" on students' willingness to participate.
Jones, 24, characterized his initial plan to pay for taped or written accounts of comments teachers make in class as legal "news-gathering," but said, "We don't want to add to the problems of UCLA students who are already being abused in many of these cases by professors."
However, his change in tactics failed to satisfy UCLA officials. Lawrence H. Lokman, a UCLA spokesman, said University of California rules bar the distribution of course materials unless permission is granted by the instructor and campus chancellor. As a result, he said, Jones' campaign violates UC policy even if no payments are involved.
Jones said one student, whom he declined to identify, had committed to participate in the paid campaign and will now do so as a volunteer. Other students have said that they might join in, Jones said.
Meanwhile, the effort suffered another defection. Radio talk show host Al Rantel, of KABC in Los Angeles, announced that he would resign from the advisory board of the Bruin Alumni Assn. That follows last week's resignations by former congressman James Rogan, Harvard historian Stephan Thernstrom and emeritus UCLA English professor Jascha Kessler.
