This is a topic with which I have considerable personal experience. Over the past 40 years, I have watched the American university be transformed from an institution of learning into an institution of social change. Our finest universities have become bulwarks of ideology where thinking is neither encouraged nor respected. Put simply: The liberals traded academic excellence for diversity and inclusion. Whatever one may think about the value of diversity in society, the university cannot pursue both goals effectively at the same time. If the top priority of the university is academic excellence, the attainment of diversity among the student body will lag behind the expectations of the liberals. If diversity is the top priority of the university, academic excellence will suffer as indeed it has. Already in the 1990s it had become apparent that our Ivy League universities had lowered their academic standards and that their graduates were receiving an inferior education. Today, the situation has reached proportions that are alarming even to some university administrators.
Last October, my wife Susan and I were invited to the Inauguration Ceremony of Harvard’s new President, Lawrence Bacow. In his Inaugural Address, the incoming President acknowledged very clearly the present crisis of the American university and hinted at some of the underlying causes. Following the ceremony, we went to the university bookstore to browse the latest publications, and we were shocked by some of the book titles on the shelves. The diction of liberal “educated” authors has become embarrassingly vulgar. Of course, this situation is not unique to New England, but rather it prevails at most universities across the country.
The vulgarity of political dialogue in the media that we are currently observing is a direct outgrowth of the liberal policies at the universities over the last 40 years. Civility in political dialogue is now considered to be “linguistic timidity”, as Molly Roberts (BA in English!) seems to suggest in her “Washington Post” defense of radical liberals. I could not disagree with Ms. Roberts more strenuously. Vulgarity in politics always was and still is a mark of linguistic incompetence and demonstrates a flagrant disregard for those of differing opinions. The English language affords the possibility of very forceful and direct expression without resorting to vulgarity.
Unfortunately, the vulgar diction and crude conduct on the campuses of many universities today are only the tip of the iceberg. Corresponding to this surface phenomenon is the deeper problem of low academic standards and sloppy research. In the humanities, with which I am most familiar, ideologies have almost completely replaced serious thinking. In pursuing my own research, I rarely rely on a book published after the turn of the millennium. The level of competence in more recent publications is so low, and the honesty in the evaluation of data is so lacking that the material is practically useless. To be sure, our universities have attained diversity, but the price for this was the abandonment of high standards.
If one looks for an historical parallel to the downward spiral of the American university, it can easily be found in the plight of the East German universities after the communist takeover in 1949. The German Democratic Republic, as it was called, transformed its universities into platforms for the communist ideology. First rate professors were fired, and mouthpieces for the communists were hired in their place. The academic excellence of the universities deteriorated very quickly, and Marxism became the unquestioned standard by which every other idea was judged. Typical for this transformation was the Karl Marx University in Leipzig, Germany where Chancellor Angela Merkel studied and from which social activist Angela Davis received an honorary doctorate.
Many readers will interpret this article as a rejection of diversity, but they are mistaken to do so. What I reject is not diversity in society, but rather the transformation of an institution of learning into an institution of social change that propagates a particular ideology. As long as promoting diversity does not impinge upon academic excellence, I support it gladly, but providing the highest possible quality of education should remain the primary goal of the university. Where will we find future leaders if our universities can no longer educate them? Without a solid knowledge of history, the tools of critical thinking, and openness for creative ideas, we as a nation face a bleak future.
Villager Jack E. Brush is a frequent contributor to Villages-News.com