This year's winner (see www.campusmagazine.org) was little Le Moyne College in Syracuse, N.Y., where graduate student Scott McConnell was "expelled and his 2005 registration withdrawn" for writing a research paper in which he rejected multiculturalism and suggested that "light spanking" might be helpful in maintaining order in elementary schools.

Mr. McConnell was informed that the school's decision was prompted "by a mismatch between your personal beliefs regarding teaching and learning and the Le Moyne College program goals."

Which apparently don't include considering actual pro-and-con evidence that an occasional swat may keep kids quiet in their seats so some learning can transpire.

What next, some student arguing that disease is not caused by an imbalance in the body's four humours?

The tale seems so extreme one might be tempted to dismiss the report -- issued on the first of the month -- as an "April Fool's" parody, were it not for the fact that Las Vegans will surely recognize this year's second-place "Polly" award from the Delaware-based research group.

"The University of Nevada at Las Vegas won second place after economics professor Hans-Hermann Hoppe received disciplinary sanctions for telling his class that homosexuals may lack long-term financial goals because many do not have children for whom to plan," the Washington Times reported in their April 1 story on the awards.

Professor Hoppe, who earned his Ph.D. in philosophy as well as his degree in sociology and economics from the Goethe-University in Germany, has taught at several German universities as well as at Johns Hopkins and the Bologna Center for Advanced International Studies. He has been a tenured full professor at UNLV since since 1992.

Hoppe "received disciplinary sanctions for making an economically verifiable argument that homosexuals engage less in long-term financial planning than heterosexuals because they typically do not have children," CN reports. One of Hoppe's students, Michael Knight, filed a complaint leading to a yearlong battle between Hoppe and the University (which Hoppe eventually won). Knight accused Hoppe of "stereotyping homosexuals. ... When the door closes and the lecture began [sic], he needs to make sure he is remaining as politically correct as possible."

The University's Affirmative Action/Equal Employment Opportunity Officer affirmed the complaint by Knight and recommended that Hoppe receive a reprimand and be suspended without pay for one week, CN reports. A grievance committee made up of one student and Hoppe's faculty peers upheld the original grievance and recommended that Hoppe be reprimanded and forfeit any merit pay for the current academic year.

But after Hoppe went public, retaining an attorney to challenge these Star Chamber procedures, the university rapidly withdrew in a flurry of twisted panties.

"The university's president, Dr. Carol Harter, released a statement in which she acknowledged that professors are 'entitled the freedom to teach theories and to espouse opinions that are out of the mainstream or are controversial. ...' " CN reports. But "Nowhere in the statement did Harter apologize to Hoppe for what university officials put him through, nor were any individual university officials singled out for criticism." Prof. Hoppe's Web site (http://blog.mises.org/hoppe/) details how support for his cause reached beyond the borders of the United States.

"These awards were created to focus national attention on the absurdities of political correctness rampant on college campuses and the ways in which those excesses contribute to the decline of educational standards," explained CN president T. Kenneth Cribb Jr.

Carnegie Mellon University tied for third place for hosting New Black Panther Party chief Malik Zulu Shabazz, who asked Jews in the audience to raise their hands and then said, "I'm watching you." Harvard University placed fifth, this year, after some faculty members protested university President Lawrence H. Summers' suggestion that intrinsic sex differences might account for the fact that men have more top jobs in the sciences.

Referring to the University of Colorado professor who ignited national outcry with his essay comparing September 11, 2001, victims to Nazi war criminals who deserved what they got, CN said, "Ward Churchill is defended by the academic community for declaring the victims of the World Trade Center deserved their fate, while at Harvard, Larry Summers is demonized for daring to suggest there may be differences between men and women?"