By Bonnie Washuk,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – David Horowitz, a nationally known conservative political commentator, author and activist, will speak at Bates College Wednesday night. Horowitz is also scheduled to speak at the University of Maine in Orono today.

An opponent of affirmative action, Horowitz is the author of several books including “The End of Time” and “Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left.” He has appeared on several leading news and political commentary shows.

He is founder of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture and editor of FrontPageMagazine.com, an online magazine offering views from the right. For instance, in a column Monday, Horowitz called the 100,000 people in Washington last weekend who protested the Iraq war “Zarqawi supporters.” Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been accused of masterminding suicide bombings in Iraq, and involved in beheadings.

Horowitz wrote that if the troops were pulled, Iraq would face civil war, and “the blood would flow in the streets of New York and Washington” as terrorists attacked the United States.

At Bates and the university, Horowitz is expected to talk about his “Academic Bill of Rights,” which has prompted national debate about political climates at colleges. Horowitz contends that colleges overwhelm students with views from the left, unfairly leaving out the right.

His bill of rights seeks to make colleges neutral by ensuring that the selection of speakers, course content and reading, as well as what professors lecture, reflect diverse viewpoints. The bill of rights also seeks to base student grades, and the hiring, firing and tenure of teachers, on performance, not political beliefs.

Oliver Wolf, a Bates College senior and communications director for the Maine College Republicans, said he’s excited about Horowitz’s visit. “I think his ideas on academic freedom and intellectual diversity will be important for students and members of the community to hear,” Wolf said. Horowitz’s Maine visit is sponsored by the Maine College Republicans.

The bill of rights is needed, Wolf said. There is discrimination against Republican views on campuses, even at Bates, he said.

“Sometimes you don’t hear both sides of the story,” Wolf said. “In some levels there is not fair and equal treatment.” If a college is already presenting both sides, the bill of rights is a way of protecting diversity, Wolf said.

The Bates College Student Government adopted the bill of rights last spring, Wolf said. “The state Legislature should adopt it as well,” he said.

Last year, legislators rejected L.D. 1194, which would create an academic bill of rights in Maine. “Who can argue with that?” asked Sen. Elizabeth Mitchell, D-Vassalboro, co-chair of the Education Committee. “But the devil’s in the details.”

A bill of rights that mandated all colleges in Maine offer equal, diverse political and philosophical views “might have had a chilling effect on the exchange of ideas,” Mitchell said. “It was frighteningly Big Brother.” A majority of the Education Committee concluded that legislators in Augusta should not dictate curriculum or speakers at the University of Maine or any other college, Mitchell said.

Horowitz will speak at 7:30 p.m. in the Edmund Muskie Archives, 70 Campus Ave. The talk is open to the public. Admission is free.

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