Over at The Chronicle of Higher Education, Len Gutkin interviews Yale English professor David Bromwich on the state of higher education. The interview comes on the thirtieth anniversary of Bromwich’s Politics by Other Means: Higher Education and Group Thinking. Bromwich...
freedom of speech
Josh Hawley says the Left is muzzling him in an op-ed published in a major New York City newspaper
Some of you remember Josh Hawley. The Missouri lawmaker was the first Republican senator to say he would challenge the 2020 Electoral College vote. He is one of the many people responsible for the January 6, 2021 insurrection on the...
What is happening (once again) at Taylor University?
James Spiegel, a philosopher professor at evangelical Taylor University, was reportedly fired for refusing to take down a video of him singing a song he wrote titled “Little Hitler.” Watch: Here is a Facebook post from Chris Date, a friend...
Is the American mind closing?
James Ceaser, a professor of politics at the University of Virginia, makes some important points about intellectual inquiry in this piece at The National Review. I found this section useful: Begin with higher education, the institution traditionally charged with presenting...
Another Battle at Gettysburg?
Next weekend marks the 154th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. It looks like Gettysburg will once again be a battleground, but this time the “war” is a cultural one, focused on modern debates about free speech, the Trump presidency,...
Drew Gilpin Faust on Free Speech: We live in a “highly polarized political and social environment, perhaps the most divisive since the era of the Civil War”
Here is the Harvard president’s commencement address: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anZrIGqFAw4&w=560&h=315]...
Why Are College Students Rejecting Free Speech?
When Jonathan Zimmerman writes an op-ed I usually read it. As I have said multiple times at this blog, he is the master of the history-informed op-ed. In his recent piece in The Philadelphia Inquirer, The University of Pennsylvania education and...
Charles Murray's "Provocative" Speech at Middlebury
It was actually pretty “middle of the road.” Two Cornell University human development professors, Wendy M. Williams and Stephen J. Ceci, took the text of Murray’s now infamous speech at Middlebury and sent it to seventy college professors at colleges...
Deresiewicz: Select Private Colleges Have Become "Religious" Schools
William Deresiewicz‘s recent article at The American Scholar is especially pertinent in light of what recently happened to Charles Murray at Middlebury College. Deresiewicz writes “political correctness and rational discourse are incompatible ideas.” Here is a taste: Selective private colleges...
What is Going On At Cedarville University?
This comes from an underground student newspaper called The Ventriloquist that has been critical of the administration of this very conservative Christian college: On April 23, distribution of the April issue of The Ventriloquist was forcefully shut down by Cedarville University president...
Should Naomi Schaefer Riley Have Been Fired From Brainstorm?
Readers of The Way of Improvement Leads Home may have noticed that I did not comment on The Chronicle of Higher Education‘s decision to fire Naomi Schaeffer Riley for her blog post attacking the discipline of Black Studies and, specifically,...
Supreme Court: Westboro Baptist Church Can Continue Their Hate Speech at Military Funerals
The vote was 8-1. Read about it here. Only Justice Samuel Alito dissented.