Posted by David Bernstein:
My L.A. Times op-ed on Chermersinsky, Summers, and the State of Academic
Freedom on Campus:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2007_09_16-2007_09_22.shtml#1190207268
Some excerpts from[1] my op-ed, which appears in today's L.A. Times:
The saga of controversial liberal law professor Erwin Chemerinsky's
on-again, off-again deanship at the new UC Irvine law school was
highly unusual in two ways. First, the pressure to enforce
political orthodoxy at Chemerinsky's expense came from the right,
not the left, and second, academic freedom and 1st Amendment values
won a resounding victory when Chemerinsky was ultimately rehired. A
more typical example of how academic freedom remains in jeopardy
across the country is the UC Board of Regents' treatment of Larry
Summers, the former president of Harvard. University....
The hostility to Summers reflects the growing influence of
professors who see their primary mission not as advancing human
knowledge but as promoting a "progressive" political agenda.
Entire academic departments are often overtly ideological and
politicized, even at schools not normally thought of as hotbeds of
activism. Loyola Marymount's women's studies department, for
example, proclaims as its mission "to call attention to the
androcentric nature of society, propose alternatives and strategies
that honor women's human rights, and promote a vision of society
where gender hierarchy, as well as other forms of social injustice,
are eliminated." In universities across the United States,
conservative scholars are about as welcome, and as rare, in women's
studies programs as Nazis in B'nai B'rith....
The Chemerinsky episode, disturbing though it was, should not
distract us from the primary challenge facing academic freedom in
American universities: the rise of an academic far-left
establishment that seeks to use universities as a base for
political activism, and is perfectly willing to violate accepted
standards of academic freedom to achieve that goal. Anyone
concerned with the future of American higher education has the duty
to defend the values of scholarship and open debate against
authoritarian political correctness. Unfortunately, by disinviting
Summers, the UC regents failed miserably.
References
1.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-bernstein19sep19,0,3857623.story?coll=la-opinion-center
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