Abigail Stewart and Virginia Valian are senior psychologists at the University of Michigan and Hunter College, respectively. As an opponent of group preferences and double standards to achieve diversity among university faculty, I read their book, An Inclusive Academy, hoping to learn something from people with whom I disagreed. This study confirms the tenacity of … Continue reading “A Lame Case for Diversity”
How far has the United States gone down the road of punishing people for uttering politically incorrect thoughts? Very far indeed, as an incident at the University of Louisville shows. Yes, we know that faculty in the “soft” fields of the social sciences endanger their careers if they happen to say something that upsets someone … Continue reading “Caveat Magister: Even Medical Professors Must Not Say Politically Incorrect Things”
The end of the spring semester marks the 20th anniversary of my professorship at Duke, first as an assistant professor and then as an associate professor of the practice at the Sanford School of Public Policy. During this time, I regularly taught the required ethics class for all undergraduate public policy majors. I won multiple … Continue reading “The End of Being a Duke Professor and What It Means for the Future of Higher Education”
Free speech on North Carolina’s campuses has come a long way in the last decade. North Carolina State University is the most recent school to earn a “green light” from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) for its speech policies. Nearly ten years ago, when the Martin Center partnered with FIRE to take … Continue reading “How NC State Became Free-Speech Friendly”
Like a cannonball, President Trump has leaped into the turbulent waters of higher education free speech policy and action. Carrying through on a promise he made during a freewheeling speech he delivered at CPAC a few weeks ago, the president has issued an executive order that throws the power of the federal government into the … Continue reading “Campus Free Speech Needs Protection—The Question Is How”
Here’s why indoctrinating children makes perfect sense to postmodernists. Postmodernism is a sprawling movement centered on the conviction that the modern world’s most distinctive achievements—among them the rise of science, technology, individualism, universal rights, democratic-republicanism, and liberal capitalism—should be treated with suspicion or outright contempt. Most of us encountered old-fashioned indoctrinators in our education. Indoctrinators … Continue reading “Why Postmoderns Train—Not Educate—Activists”
About a year ago, Princeton philosopher Robert P. George came to Chapel Hill, North Carolina to speak about civil discourse and diversity of thought with the UNC system Board of Governors. He returned on February 8, but this time he came with Cornel West, a long-time friend and philosopher at Harvard University, as guest speakers … Continue reading “The Essential Ingredient for a ‘Deep Education’”
For almost a quarter century I have been a professor of economics at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. After years of working there, I have learned something about how my department’s academic radicals, who by dint of personality but not numbers have near-decisive control over many departmental decisions. WSU economics is a master’s-level department. … Continue reading “Life Among the Academic Radicals”
American colleges and universities lean left. Among faculty at leading U.S. universities, Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 11-to-one. The administration is even more skewed: there, Democrats outnumber Republicans by 12-to-one. Further evidence can be found by examining summer reading choices, non-academic campus programming, commencement speakers, and funding given to student groups. George R. LaNoue … Continue reading “Can a New Law Protect Intellectual Diversity on Campus?”
If somebody wanted to fundamentally transform a society to its roots, where would he or she start? The most logical starting point would be education. And if there were one part of the educational system that would produce this transformation most broadly, effectively, and efficiently, it would most likely be at our schools of education … Continue reading “Radically Transforming the Nation: Our Politicized Schools of Education”