The following is adapted from an address given at a Martin Center luncheon on July 15, 2021. Finally, I come to my main argument: Safe spaces. I want to come out in favor of safe spaces. Not everywhere, or for all purposes, but in general I think there should be a strong presumption in favor … Continue reading “Safe Spaces: Balancing Academic Freedom and Wokeness”
Dr. Michael C. Munger, Duke University professor of political science and director of the Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Program, will be our featured speaker at this year’s Summer Session luncheon! Join us at the Carolina Country Club in Raleigh, NC on Thursday, July 15th for Dr. Munger’s talk on campus safe spaces. Dr. Munger will … Continue reading “In Praise of “Safe Spaces”: Balancing Academic Freedom and Wokeness”
Over the past decade, American moral culture has changed. The evidence of those changes has been especially apparent on college campuses, where new concepts such as microaggressions, safe spaces, trigger warnings, and bias response teams were first tested. But this new “victimhood culture” is devastating to its adherents, disempowering them and dooming them to disappointment. … Continue reading “1776 Unites: An Alternative to Campus Victimhood Culture”
It is no secret that our colleges and universities have witnessed a sea change in campus culture over the past two decades. Political correctness has run rampant. High-profile incidents such as the Yale Halloween costume controversy and phenomena such as safe spaces and building re-namings have captured public attention. College officials, however, assure us that … Continue reading “UVA and the Dangerous Politicization of Our College Campuses”
The idea of a campus “safe space”—a university-sanctioned oasis where students can go to destress and feel at ease—has had its share of ridicule. And it’s not hard to see why: It is often hard to distinguish between a college safe space and a preschool daycare. For example, in April 2019, the University of North … Continue reading “The New American Academy: Break Out the Crayons and Play-Doh”
Editor’s note: This article is an excerpt from Coming Home: Reclaiming America’s Conservative Soul (ISBN: 9781641770569), to be published by Encounter Books on May 14. The promise of higher education has become a trap for tens of millions of Americans. The promise: Every one of us and our children could go to college, earn a … Continue reading “From Indoctrination to Education: Salvaging the University”
After months of clashes with angry students, the university decided that the young professor it hired had to go. From the day of his first class on campus, protesters had disrupted his lectures. Police had to clear angry students out of the room each day. Officials feared for the professor’s safety and appealed to students … Continue reading “Princeton Prof Thinks Free Speech Is in Serious Trouble”
For the past six years, I have taught an undergraduate course on international economics at Johns Hopkins University. Most of my students thought it was a very good course. So I was shocked when, on December 6, 2016, I was met at the door of my classroom by Johns Hopkins security personnel and barred from … Continue reading “My University Treated Me Like a Criminal Over a Joke”
This academic year has been punctuated by a series of high-profile campus protests. Many student grievances have, as in previous years, centered on claims of racial injustice. If next academic year is to be about education rather than protest, faculty and administrators must explore the role they play in both politicizing college life and racializing … Continue reading “How Colleges Themselves Bring About Racial Protests”
When universities institute things such as “safe spaces” and “trigger warnings,” they often justify doing so in the name of protecting students’ mental health. Critics, on the other hand, argue that universities are more often protecting students from ideas with which they disagree and shielding them from the vicissitudes of adulthood. But there is at … Continue reading “The “Snowflake” Generation: Real or Imagined?”