Higher Ed
What’s happening in higher education.
Stanford Law School Dean Letter on Free Speech
After an explosive shout-down at Stanford Law School, its dean defends free speech in a long, now seminal letter that should stand as a model for all university leaders in articulating and enforcing a commitment to the principles of free speech and freedom of association. Below are a couple of excerpts. We strongly encourage our members and all Harvard’s faculty and leadership to read the full letter.
My Struggle Session at Stanford Law School
Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Duncan provides a firsthand account of his “struggle session” with Stanford Law School students. “The most disturbing aspect of this shameful debacle is what it says about the state of legal education. Stanford is an elite law school. The protesters showed not the foggiest grasp of the basic concepts of legal discourse: That one must meet reason with reason, not power. That jeering contempt is the opposite of persuasion. That the law protects the speaker from the mob, not the mob from the speaker. Worst of all, Ms. Steinbach’s [Associate Dean for DEI] remarks made clear she is proud that Stanford students are being taught this is the way law should be.”
The Tyranny of the DEI Bureaucracy
The Editorial Board condemns university DEI offices as authoritarian, ideological enforcement bureaus. “The Stanford blowup shows how the culture of DEI, and especially its accumulation of power in the bureaucracy, has become a threat to free speech… Rather than promoting diversity, DEI officers enforce ideological conformity… they promote racial division rather than redress it, and institutions need to rethink their value.”
Woke word-policing is now beyond satire
George Will takes a tour of “woke” ludicrousness, showing that “In America…the worse wokeness becomes, the better. Wokeness is being shrunk by the solvent of the laughter it provokes.” Topics include: Stanford’s “Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative,” USC’s school of social work banning the word “field,” Stanford’s “Protected Identity Harm” system, DEI loyalty oaths, woke-editing Roald Dahl, and progressives’ serious use of the term “Latinx.”
Diversity statements are an imposition on academic freedom
Harvard alum Samuel Abrams (AM 07 PHD 10) writes that required diversity statements “are in conflict with the fundamental values that should govern university life: intellectual freedom and epistemic humility. They compel faculty to affirm contested views on matters of public debate or to embed specific ideological perspectives in their academic activities.”
Apathy Descends on Stanford and Stanford’s Search for Meaning
Stanford Review: On Apathy | On Meaning
Two must-read pieces on what’s happening on elite college campuses today. While it may seem that there’s activism and meaning-infused energy in some student publications, the reality on the ground at elite institutions tells a very different story. “We are going to oversee a sleepwalk into the decline of American democracy—led by apathetic elite college alums.”
My Liberal Campus [Princeton] Is Pushing Freethinkers to the Right
A piece on today’s campus climate, written by a senior at Princeton, could have been written by any student in the Ivy League and beyond where a puritanical and often hostile progressive ideology is forcing students rightward.
The Academic Mind 2022: What Faculty Think About Free Expression and Academic Freedom on Campus
FIRE surveyed nearly 1500 faculty regarding their attitudes on free expression and academic freedom. While “faculty are markedly more tolerant than the students they teach… A majority of faculty worry about losing their jobs or reputations because someone misrepresents their words. A third self-censor…[and] a significant portion…support punishing their colleagues in softer ways that can chill expression.”
How DEI Is Supplanting Truth as the Mission of American Universities
John Sailer describes how the principles of DEI are “meant to sound like a promise to provide welcome and opportunity to all on campus,” yet instead represent “controversial political and social views.” In order to advance in their careers, academics “must demonstrate fealty to vague and ever-expanding DEI demands and to the people who enforce them. Failing to comply, or expressing doubt or concern, means risking career ruin.”
MIT and Notre Dame Presidents Issue Freedom of Expression Commitment Statements
In February 2023, MIT president, Sally Kornbluth, and the president of Notre Dame, Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., each issued a statement confirming their respective university’s commitment to freedom of expression.
As colleges become more Stasi-like, students live in fear of being reported
Rahn says out loud what many who have studied history fear. “I saw the horrors of the communist system up close,” he explains. “What I never anticipated was that..an enforced ideology would become the norm on many college campuses… Professors…who have never directly experienced socialism and communism are indoctrinating students with utopian fantasies…free debate has been abolished… concepts like innocent until proven guilty and due process are ignored. Students are encouraged to provide anonymous reports on others… Like the Stasi, colleges…keep detailed records on student behaviors.”
What Happened at Georgetown Law with Covid?
Another firsthand account of frightening thought mandates and punishment. “For questioning Covid restrictions, Georgetown Law suspended me from campus, forced me to undergo a psychiatric evaluation, required me to waive my right to medical confidentiality, and threatened to report me to state bar associations.”
Feb ‘23 Higher Ed Collection
The following are higher ed-related articles of interest from February 2023 (to date).
Let’s Face It: Academic Freedom and Inclusion Aren’t Always Compatible
After the Hamline debacle, a take-down of the orthodoxy that academic freedom and DEI are compatible (dogma promulgated by the 82-page 2018 Harvard Inclusion and Belonging report). “When institutions proclaim that academic freedom and inclusion coexist in a kind of synergistic harmony, they are trafficking in PR-driven wishful thinking… Instead, we should turn to the wise words… “Education should not be intended to make people comfortable, it is meant to make them think.”
Chinese money is flooding into American higher education — with little transparency
Former Secretary of Education DeVos writes on the potential strings attached and national security implications of Chinese donations to American Universities. “China, like many of our global adversaries, is attempting nothing short of espionage via America’s colleges and universities — buying its way into influencing teaching, stealing our intellectual property and manipulating US foreign policy.”
Logos in Savannah
The new Ralston College in Savannah is for students “looking for a real education: serious reading of serious books, with teachers who know their stuff and care, and in fellowship with other seekers of truth, beauty, and the good life.”