These are troubling times for American higher education. On the one hand, students at some elite universities have made strong anti-Israel statements, some of which have crossed the line into outright anti-Semitism, and some university presidents have responded timidly. But as ugly as these events were, there is little reason to believe that the quality of education at these institutions – which already represent only a small portion of America's college enrollment – is in serious jeopardy.
On the other hand, the Florida State University System, which has more than 430,000 students, is under intense political attack from the Republican state government. The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) recently released a report entitled Political Interference and Academic Freedom in Florida's Public Higher Education System, which found political appointees taking over key administrative and supervisory positions and increasing pressure on faculty members, nothing of the sort to teach, described in detail could be considered woke [a favor de la justicia social, o progre]. This political attack will almost certainly degrade the quality of higher education for large numbers of students, in ways that I will talk about shortly.
But first, let's ask the obvious question: which of these two educational topics has captured our collective attention and which has essentially gone unnoticed? You already know the answer.
Let's think about it: The total number of college students in the United States is about 20 million; About 70,000 of them study at the Ivies, the most prestigious universities, and just over 7,000 study at Harvard.
It is true that we are a much more elitist and classist society than we would like to admit, and that graduates of elite institutions have a disproportionate influence on public life. (Massive disclosure: I didn't go to Harvard because they rejected my application, but lo and behold, I had to get my BA at Yale because of it.) But even taking that influence into account, I would argue that we are institutions that so few Americans and who represent so little of the national educational landscape, pay too much attention.
How is this disparity explained? In some ways, it's because the people who shape the public narrative are often graduates of elite institutions. In some ways, this is a spillover effect of celebrity culture, which focuses on the lifestyles of the future rich and famous.
It must be made clear that the resurgence of anti-Semitism in some factions of the political left is truly worrying. There are people on both the left and the right with ugly views – both anti-democratic and anti-Semitic. Although political scientists often criticize the horseshoe theory of politics, which suggests that the far left and far right may be more similar to each other than both are to the political center, I have always found this theory to be plausible. And I will not excuse university presidents who make mistakes on this issue. After all, it is largely the job of these chancellors to lead their institutions through intellectual and political minefields.
However, it is important to keep track of things. The far left may not be morally better than the far right. But in the United States, the far left has almost no political power, while the far right controls one chamber of Congress and several states.
This brings me back to Florida universities. The AAUP report details the legal and administrative actions taken by Florida's Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and his appointees. But the bigger picture is that public higher education has become a key front in DeSantis' “war on woke people.”
What is considered woke? The answer isn't clear, but that lack of clarity is, in a way, the point. Teaching students anything that could be considered politically liberal or progressive could be interpreted as liberal. According to the report, a Florida professor was “ordered not to teach that the Civil War was a conflict over slavery,” a suggestion that, for example, Ulysses S. Grant, who knew something about it, would disagree with. Disagreement. This slippery slope creates a climate of fear that hinders teaching in many subjects and appears to be driving some of the best teachers out of the system.
And anyone who assumes that there are clear limits to how far bullying can go – well, maybe it's a problem for the social sciences and history, but the hard sciences are certain – is naive. Do you really have a hard time imagining teachers being pressured not to provide evidence of human-caused climate change?
So yes, let's hold university presidents accountable when they make mistakes on an important issue. And let us denounce calls for violence wherever they come from. But let’s also focus on the biggest threat to our higher education system, which comes not from left-wing student activists but from right-wing politicians.
Paul Krugman He is a Nobel Prize winner in economics. © The New York Times, 2023. Translation news clips
Follow all information Business And Business on Facebook and Xor in our weekly newsletter
The five-day agenda
The most important business quotes of the day, with the keys and context to understand their significance.
RECEIVE IT IN YOUR EMAIL
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
_