Is it a good or a bad sign when a university sees the need to hire a "Professor of Conservative Thought"?

This is the proposal for an endowment at the University of Colorado. Amusingly enough, the idea bugs liberals and conservatives:

"Why set aside money specifically for a conservative?" asks Curtis Bell, a teaching assistant in political science. "I'd rather see a quality academic than someone paid to have a particular perspective."...

[David] Horowitz fears that setting up a token right-winger as The Conservative at Boulder will brand the person as a curiosity, like "an animal in the zoo."...

"Like Margaret Mead among the Samoans, they're planning to study conservatives. That's hilarious," says [George] Will....