Harry Targ
("SB
202,
which was introduced by Sen. Spencer Deery (R-Lafayette), would reform the
tenure process in Indiana to ensure public universities adopt a philosophy of
promoting free speech and "intellectual diversity," which was defined as "multiple, divergent and varied scholarly perspectives on an extensive range of
public policy issues." The Indiana House of Representative voted 67 to 30 in favor
of the bill yesterday. Journal and Courier, February 27, 2024.)
(“Meanwhile, Kenneth Griffin, a megadonor who gave
Harvard so much money that it named its largest graduate school after him last
year, said at a conference Tuesday that elite universities now produce “whiny
snowflakes” instead of “leaders and problem solvers” because of their excessive
focus on “microaggressions [and] a DEI agenda.” The Boston Globe, January
31, 2024).
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David Horowitz launched an assault on higher education in 2005, not
too dissimilar to the McCarthyite attacks on higher education in the 1950s. He
and a variety of organizations such as the National Association of Scholars
(NAS) sought to purge higher education of critical thought.
Another round of more sophisticated and highly
resourced attacks on higher education was expanded in the twenty-first century
by the Koch Foundation State Policy Networks (SPN). In this case, state
organizations were created, rightwing politicians were supported for key
administrative posts in universities, particularly university presidencies, and
Boards of Trustees representing huge corporations and banks acted more
assertively to destroy the rich diversity of educational experiences that had
been inspired by the 1960s.
With the rise of the far-rightwing forces around
former President Trump, combining corporate elites, religious fundamentalists,
extreme free market advocates, and military contractors, the attacks today on
education, K through university, have become fierce.
Now conservative politicians have launched attacks on education in state houses and the halls of Congress. Critical Race Theory, rather than being a short-hand description for a body of scholarship, has been redefined as ideology. Politicians running for office talk about the Civil War without mentioning slavery as a root cause. Charges of antisemitism are being used to challenge expressions of intellectual and political points of view on campuses. Presidents at our most prestigious universities, women and persons of color, are attacked for defending academic freedom. Other presidents remain silent as academic freedom is attacked. And the Indiana legislature just passed SB 202 which inserts politicians and appointed Board of Trustees in the processes of evaluating what faculty teach. Rather than protecting intellectual diversity SB 202 and other such legislation will stifle the intellectual diversity which has characterized higher education at its best.
The whole edifice of what John Stuart Mill described a
long time ago as “the marketplace of ideas” is under assault. To borrow from a
book title about the 1950s by Marty Jezer, we are returning to a new “Dark
Ages.”
It is time for those who support a higher education
that is rich with discussion and controversy to stand up in defense of freedom of
speech, education, and an educational system that is not influenced by powerful economic and political
interests.
