Do you know someone who thinks that our higher education system is working just fine? Perhaps he or she believes that all the “right-wing” complaining is much ado about nothing — merely another attempt to discredit something that propels the country forward.
If you, you might suggest that he or she read the new book Conformity Colleges by professor emeritus David Barnhizer, which I review here for the Martin Center. He laments “the destruction of intellectual creativity and dissent” on so many of our campuses. That has been replaced by incessant pressure to adopt the leftist line on a wide array of issues. Disagree, and your career can be ruined by a vengeful academic mob.
Furthermore, Barnhizer observes, leftist groupthink has spread outward from higher education into K–12 through our malignant “education schools” where future teachers are molded into social justice warriors. They may not be any good at teaching children to read and write, but they can hector them all day long about the evils of America.
Barnhizer packs the book with well-documented cases to help overcome reluctance to believe that things are as bad as they are. For instance, he recounts the disgusting treatment by NYU of veteran chemistry professor Maitland Jones, who was terminated after a group of students griped that his course was too hard. Traditional academic standards are falling while the ideological obsessions of progressivism and DEI take root, even in medical schools.
What we desperately need, Barnhizer concludes, is a rebirth of academic integrity, where truth and knowledge matter, not any set of political beliefs. His book deserves a wide reading and much discussion.