It appears that the culture war is heating up on campus—and the casualties are starting to mount. One well-known casualty was the president of the University of Missouri system, Tim Wolfe, who was pressured to resign by students.
A different, but equally disturbing incident—or perhaps, series of incidents—occurred at tiny West Liberty University in West Virginia. After years of the school’s gradual decline, an energetic president, Robin Capehart, was appointed. He tried to whip WLU into shape, but the faculty, formerly comfortable in their lethargic malaise, somehow found the energy to fight back. Capehart was brought up on trumped up charges that didn’t stick, but the defense wearied him into resigning.
Spurred by that victory, the faculty then turned their sights on one of their own—Erik Root, the school’s most outspoken free-market advocate (he even accepted grant money from the Koch brothers!). The faculty’s allies in the new administration eliminated his entire political science department, supposedly due to low enrollment, even though other departments with lower enrollment remained. But no worries—Root’s classes on economic philosophy may be gone, but WLU students can still take such enlightening courses as “Rock and Roll Appreciation.”
Instead of being intimidated into silence, however, Root offers a blow-by-blow description here.