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The United States’ universities are far from perfect. But what’s really driving the attacks on them are ideological and policy differences. College students and professors are often among the most vocal people in the United States challenging power structures and ideas that most politicians don’t dare question, from the usefulness of police departments to the virtues of capitalism to U.S. support for Israel. The war on colleges and universities is really a war on the left-wing and at times very radical ideas that can thrive on campuses, unlike most institutions in American life.
It’s important to emphasize that the overwhelming majority of things that happen on campuses have nothing to do with controversial policy views. A fifth of the Americans who get bachelor’s degrees each year study business, one of the most popular fields. Students and professors in particular do tend to vote for Democratic presidential candidates. But the course listings at most universities in the United States are full of fairly innocuous subjects, such as American history since the Civil War. The professors I know couldn’t turn their students into Marxists even if they tried (which they don’t) because they can’t get them to come to class regularly or do the course reading in the first place.
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And the College Republicans and the Federalist Society are indications that conservative groups can thrive on campus.
Follow this authorPerry Bacon Jr.'s opinionsFollow
But I don’t want to ignore the obvious. If you put all the people who have successfully pushed the Democratic Party and the country to focus more on racial and economic inequality over the past decade into a room, it would include a lot of professors — and some students. (This is nothing new — professors and student activists have long been a major force in progressive movements, particularly in the 1960s.) Much of the research illustrating the growing gap between the rich and poor in the United States was done by professors at the University of California at Berkeley. Intersectionality, critical race theory and other important ideas on race and class come from Black academics. Campus student groups were critical to the initial Black Lives Matter protests in 2014, as well as more recent activism opposing Israel’s bombing of Gaza.
Most people on campus aren’t pro-Palestinian protesters or critical race theory proponents, but many of the most prominent figures in both groups are either college students or professors. That’s not because university leaders are formally advocating such ideas. Tenure protections allow professors, unlike most professionals, to conduct research and take public stances that challenge traditional power structures without fear of being fired. And the campus setting puts thousands of young people in the same place, making it easier to organize protests.
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There are some practices and policies at universities that have ideological bents — and those are generally closer to the Democratic Party than the Republicans. Having diversity offices, as many universities do, illustrates their belief that religion, race and other identities should be acknowledged and might be the source of discrimination. Majors such as gender studies and Black studies suggest race and gender are legitimate areas of focus. Prominent sociologists in the United States argue (with strong evidence) that racism and sexism still play a major role in American society, and many sociology courses adopt that perspective.
So American universities are home to many of the country’s most prominent left-wing people and have formal departments and programs more in line with Democratic than Republican Party orthodoxy. So it’s not surprising that they are facing some resistance from the center and the right.
What’s frustrating is that university critics often don’t directly acknowledge their policy-based disagreements with professors and students. Instead, Republican politicians say professors are “indoctrinating” students and forcing them their views. Center-left and center-right college critics also imply that colleges are engaged in politics, not education. For example, in a recent piece, the New York Times’s David Brooks wrote “ideological activism is replacing intellectual inquiry as the primary mission of universities.”
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These college critics aren’t being more straightforward for a reason. Trying to defund (as the right is doing) or delegitimize (as many in the center are) either individual majors or colleges overall based on the left-wing views of some students and faculty would seem like censorship. But casting colleges as improperly forcing views on students or being centers of antisemitism are legitimate lines of critique.
It’s important to emphasize that not all of the conflicts about colleges break along left vs. right or center-left vs. left divides. For example, some left-wing Black professors are critical of campus diversity efforts, which they view as focused on minor issues (how many Black people are on various university committees) over important ones (how many Black students are enrolled at the school). Nor do I want to condone everything that happens on campuses. There have been some troubling instances of antisemitism in the past few months — and also some overly broad limitations on anti-Israel speech.
And while students and professors should have full freedom outside of class to push whatever views they choose, university-wide practices are another matter. Having a diversity and inclusion office or a gender studies major reflects broader views and perspectives. Colleges in blue states may choose to have more courses and programs on subjects such as race and gender and red states fewer — and that’s perfectly appropriate.
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But much of the criticism of colleges and academia is essentially, “Some college professors and student activists are very left and that annoys me,” but with other pretexts. And that should end. There is nothing wrong with writing well-researched articles showing the continued existence of racism, with protesting the killing of civilians in Gaza or with bluntly criticizing Republicans and centrist Democrats on your personal social media outside of class. Making centrists and conservatives feel bad and wrong because their ideas often play down deep-seated problems such as racism isn’t a violation of free speech, academic freedom or intellectualism.
I have no doubt that many conservatives and centrists would prefer not to have campuses where left-wing ideas can flourish. That’s unfortunate. But I would much rather we acknowledge these ideological fissures than pretend we are debating free speech or antisemitism.
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There is a lot of very intense criticism of colleges and universities right now, particularly from people on the political right and center. Colleges, according to these critics, limit free speech; permit their diversity, equity and inclusion offices to dominate campus life; and in the wake of the violence in Israel and Gaza, foster antisemitism.
The United States’ universities are far from perfect. But what’s really driving the attacks on them are ideological and policy differences. College students and professors are often among the most vocal people in the United States challenging power structures and ideas that most politicians don’t dare question, from the usefulness of police departments to the virtues of capitalism to U.S. support for Israel. The war on colleges and universities is really a war on the left-wing and at times very radical ideas that can thrive on campuses, unlike most institutions in American life.
It’s important to emphasize that the overwhelming majority of things that happen on campuses have nothing to do with controversial policy views. A fifth of the Americans who get bachelor’s degrees each year study business, one of the most popular fields. Students and professors in particular do tend to vote for Democratic presidential candidates. But the course listings at most universities in the United States are full of fairly innocuous subjects, such as American history since the Civil War. The professors I know couldn’t turn their students into Marxists even if they tried (which they don’t) because they can’t get them to come to class regularly or do the course reading in the first place.
And the College Republicans and the Federalist Society are indications that conservative groups can thrive on campus.
But I don’t want to ignore the obvious. If you put all the people who have successfully pushed the Democratic Party and the country to focus more on racial and economic inequality over the past decade into a room, it would include a lot of professors — and some students. (This is nothing new — professors and student activists have long been a major force in progressive movements, particularly in the 1960s.) Much of the research illustrating the growing gap between the rich and poor in the United States was done by professors at the University of California at Berkeley. Intersectionality, critical race theory and other important ideas on race and class come from Black academics. Campus student groups were critical to the initial Black Lives Matter protests in 2014, as well as more recent activism opposing Israel’s bombing of Gaza.
Most people on campus aren’t pro-Palestinian protesters or critical race theory proponents, but many of the most prominent figures in both groups are either college students or professors. That’s not because university leaders are formally advocating such ideas. Tenure protections allow professors, unlike most professionals, to conduct research and take public stances that challenge traditional power structures without fear of being fired. And the campus setting puts thousands of young people in the same place, making it easier to organize protests.
There are some practices and policies at universities that have ideological bents — and those are generally closer to the Democratic Party than the Republicans. Having diversity offices, as many universities do, illustrates their belief that religion, race and other identities should be acknowledged and might be the source of discrimination. Majors such as gender studies and Black studies suggest race and gender are legitimate areas of focus. Prominent sociologists in the United States argue (with strong evidence) that racism and sexism still play a major role in American society, and many sociology courses adopt that perspective.
So American universities are home to many of the country’s most prominent left-wing people and have formal departments and programs more in line with Democratic than Republican Party orthodoxy. So it’s not surprising that they are facing some resistance from the center and the right.
What’s frustrating is that university critics often don’t directly acknowledge their policy-based disagreements with professors and students. Instead, Republican politicians say professors are “indoctrinating” students and forcing them their views. Center-left and center-right college critics also imply that colleges are engaged in politics, not education. For example, in a recent piece, the New York Times’s David Brooks wrote “ideological activism is replacing intellectual inquiry as the primary mission of universities.”
These college critics aren’t being more straightforward for a reason. Trying to defund (as the right is doing) or delegitimize (as many in the center are) either individual majors or colleges overall based on the left-wing views of some students and faculty would seem like censorship. But casting colleges as improperly forcing views on students or being centers of antisemitism are legitimate lines of critique.
It’s important to emphasize that not all of the conflicts about colleges break along left vs. right or center-left vs. left divides. For example, some left-wing Black professors are critical of campus diversity efforts, which they view as focused on minor issues (how many Black people are on various university committees) over important ones (how many Black students are enrolled at the school). Nor do I want to condone everything that happens on campuses. There have been some troubling instances of antisemitism in the past few months — and also some overly broad limitations on anti-Israel speech.
And while students and professors should have full freedom outside of class to push whatever views they choose, university-wide practices are another matter. Having a diversity and inclusion office or a gender studies major reflects broader views and perspectives. Colleges in blue states may choose to have more courses and programs on subjects such as race and gender and red states fewer — and that’s perfectly appropriate.
But much of the criticism of colleges and academia is essentially, “Some college professors and student activists are very left and that annoys me,” but with other pretexts. And that should end. There is nothing wrong with writing well-researched articles showing the continued existence of racism, with protesting the killing of civilians in Gaza or with bluntly criticizing Republicans and centrist Democrats on your personal social media outside of class. Making centrists and conservatives feel bad and wrong because their ideas often play down deep-seated problems such as racism isn’t a violation of free speech, academic freedom or intellectualism.
I have no doubt that many conservatives and centrists would prefer not to have campuses where left-wing ideas can flourish. That’s unfortunate. But I would much rather we acknowledge these ideological fissures than pretend we are debating free speech or antisemitism.
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