College Learning

Schools are finally waking up:

What’s new is this: the universities themselves are beginning to recognize — and in rare cases admit — that they took a wrong turn. The Chronicle’s publication of Clune’s critique of higher education is one piece of evidence for this claim. Five or ten years ago, would the following words have been printed by the country’s top magazine on higher ed?

Even if one wholeheartedly agrees with every faculty-lounge political opinion, there are still very good reasons to be skeptical about making such opinions the basis of one’s academic work. The first is that, while academics have real expertise in their disciplines, we have no special expertise when it comes to political judgment … No one should treat my opinion on any political matter as more authoritative than that of any other person. The spectacle of English professors pontificating to their captive classroom audiences on the evils of capitalism, the correct way to deal with climate change, or the fascist tendencies of their political opponents is simply an abuse of power.

The publication of Clune’s piece is evidence of the sea-change that might be taking place in academia. But there are other indicators. Clune notes that grand political proclamations by university administrators have dropped off since the House of Representatives’ hearings on antisemitism and the related resignation of Harvard University President Claudine Gay. More surprising still, a number of universities have begun scrapping their DEI departments and positions. .... Notably, the humanities programs that continue to thrive are often those that follow a more postcritical method. They’ve jettisoned the tired neo-Marxist mantras in favor of what literature has always been about: the discovery of the good, the true, and the beautiful in the mystery of human life. The rejection of objective truth by academics in the 19th and 20th centuries deprived universities of their purpose. Politics came in to fill the vacuum. But the failure of politicized academics may be a sign of hope and a step toward the restoration of truth.

Hopefully the rest of higher education will follow this trend...