Assumption University President Greg Weiner at NYT:
Colleges and universities are right to invoke academic freedom as an essential bulwark against government interference. But it is difficult not to greet this opportunistic defense of academic freedom cynically when it is voiced by those who have been indifferent or antagonistic to it when it has been cited by their political adversaries. Many of those who seek the protection of academic freedom today once denounced it as a tool of oppression. Likewise, few sounded this alarm when universities canceled conservative speakers.
That is different, to be sure, from the state enforcing conformity. But Alexis de Tocqueville argued that social pressure to conform with dominant opinion exceeded the power of even absolute monarchs. John Stuart Mill, a progressive hero, observed that the “moral coercion of public opinion” was a powerful tool of censorship. Universities should resist ideological manipulation when it comes from the state. But we must confront the fact that the culture of prevailing political opinion on campuses is also complicit in limiting free expression.
A recent study sponsored by the American Association of Colleges and Universities and the American Association of University Professors purported to show the strength of scholars’ commitment to free speech. In the survey, professors reported feeling pressure from administrators and policymakers to align with conservative views. But they also disclosed, perhaps inadvertently, how much they exert pressure from the opposite direction on their peers.
One question asked whether professors who hold a range of views should be allowed to teach undergraduates. While more than 80 percent of those surveyed would apparently tolerate a teacher who believes in a right to abortion “with no exceptions or limits,” those numbers dropped precipitously when conservative views were tested. For example, only about six in 10 said that someone who believes that “efforts to redress racial inequalities represent anti-White racism or disadvantage White individuals” should be allowed to teach undergraduates.
The contrast between those views of liberal and conservative professors, both of which are stated in cartoonish extremes, is striking regardless of what one thinks of the views being expressed. The question says nothing about whether the professors in question should be allowed to teach classes that pertain to civil rights. Yet almost 40 percent of professors surveyed seemingly oppose allowing someone espousing that view to teach undergraduates at all. By sitting on hiring and tenure committees, these scholars help regulate access to their profession. Far from defending academic freedom, their views resemble those of the Athenian jury that condemned Socrates so he could not corrupt the youth.