91AV

Since the 91AV’s President's Forum began seven years ago, the biannual event has celebrated the University's commitment to ideological diversity and a free, respectful exchange of ideas on controversial issues. That goal has never been more important than it is in the current era of polarization and politicization, noted President James Herbert at the ninth installment of the event on Feb. 13.

In a virtual roundtable discussion four nationally recognized academic thought leaders considered the ideological imbalance in higher education today on America’s college campuses as they debated the question: Are colleges and universities too liberal today?

“Tonight, we will look inward and turn the Forum’s lens on higher education itself,” Herbert said.

The President Forum’s series features moderated panel discussions and debates as a way to champion the University’s Marketplace of Ideas initiative. The event, held each semester since 2018, promotes a welcoming, ideologically diverse environment where respectful argumentation is encouraged to help students consider and find solutions for contentious issues during troubled times.

Citing a recent poll that showed only 36% of Americans have strong confidence in higher education (a sharp drop from 57% in 2015), Herbert opened the forum by stating frankly what’s at stake: Americans’ growing skepticism in the value of a college degree.

“This is a great loss,” Herbert said. “For generations, Americans generally agreed – regardless of political affiliation — that our colleges and universities provided graduates with pathways to fulfilling, successful lives, while returning corollary benefits to society as a whole, such as scientific research, community involvement, and civic engagement. They were confident that our nation’s institutions of higher education were beneficial to society — that they elevated the quality of lives of both educated individuals and of society as a whole.

“Sadly, this is no longer the case.”

Herbert noted that both those on the far right and far left of the nation’s political spectrum are to blame for the politicization in higher education today and the decline in public confidence in the academy. He welcomed the four experts to help explain why — and what, if anything, can be done to reverse this dangerous trend that has resulted in higher education becoming “just another battleground in our hyper-polarized times.”

“As educators, it is incumbent on us to restore public trust in our institutions of higher learning,” Herbert said.

The panelists agreed there is an ideological imbalance in higher education today that has led to the erosion of public trust. Most agreed that in the pursuit of truth, educators need to stem efforts to promote illiberalism, whether those efforts come from the far right or the far left. But some said the public’s declining trust in higher education might not be as much of a problem as it’s portrayed to be — or one that is unsolvable.

Samuel J. Abrams, the professor of politics at Sarah Lawrence College in New York and a senior at the American Enterprise Institute, said, yes, the academy’s ideology is lopsided, but that’s not necessarily a problem when it comes to the learning that takes place in the classroom.

“It’s a problem for research. I'd like to see some more ideological and political diversity, but it doesn't have to be a huge problem in the classroom,” Abrams said. “Most professors who are quite good, quite intelligent, quite passionate and love teaching and want to do best for their students — they're not all that interested in political indoctrination. That's what I think it really looks like across our higher ed space.”

Abrams suggested there be more efforts to assure faculty who are “right of center,” like himself, are represented, because diversity leads to disagreement, even contentious debate — and that’s always a good thing.

“Education should be uncomfortable, but it often isn't. (When it is), I think it creates a healthier, more vibrant educational sphere. There's no question in my mind,” Abrams said.

Emma Camp, the associate editor at Reason magazine and a recent graduate of the University of Virginia, said when you have ideological conformity on college campuses, it creates a constrained, more self-censorship-heavy environment, which is not good.

She called for universities to become “places where young people can open their minds, where they can hear new arguments” and not fear censorship or the threat of punishment for controversial speech. They need to get rid of speech codes, Camp said.

“I come at this from a very First-Amendment -absolutist perspective. And so, my kind of overarching concern is for academic freedom and free expression,” Camp said.

Brandon Jett, a history professor from Florida — in what he called “a very conservative area in a very conservative state” — recommended colleges today employ more tenure track faculty to ensure greater ideological diversity on campuses.

“I think if you break it down and ask people individualized questions about individualized policies, you would find that there was a wide range of opinions on a wide range of topics. And so, I'd just like to remind us of that. I think now we're kind of forced to choose a side in ways that are very, very problematic and don't really represent the diversity of individuals who have diverse opinions on a lot of different things,” Jett said.

Lynn Pasquerella, president of the American Association of Colleges and Universities and former president of Mount Holyoke College, ended the conversation by suggesting one simple solution: Universities do more for the communities where they are located to demonstrate “that our success is inextricably linked to the psychological, social, educational, health, economic wellbeing of those in the communities.”

“We have for far too long existed in an ivory tower as a willful disconnect from the practical matters of everyday life,” Pasquerella said. “We need to be visible to people who are the most skeptical about why we matter.”