Against Scholar-Activism. Neither faculty nor staff should allow advocacy to eclipse inquiry on campus.

James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal ^ | February 16, 2024 | Martha McCaughey

[karpov]

The rise of political orthodoxy on campus is often cited as one of the key reasons for reforming universities. But if there is a rise of orthodoxy, what does this orthodoxy look like, who is perpetuating it, and on what grounds are they doing so?

Professors might immediately want me to point out that universities are known for being open environments of intellectual, academic, and expressive freedom, which support their core mission to create and disseminate knowledge. They might also wish to take issue with the idea that faculty members push an orthodoxy, as it’s common for students (or students’ parents, or activist groups reviewing course syllabi) to assume they are engaging in advocacy simply because they’re teaching material that challenges cherished beliefs or questions unexamined assumptions. A creationist might see an evolutionary biologist as pushing a message, and a young man might experience a lecture on the history of sex discrimination as ax-grinding. The Committee for a Better North Carolina argued in 2003 that assigning students Barbara Ehrenreich’s book about poverty, Nickel and Dimed, constituted indoctrination. People do not always understand that studying a subject—inquiry—is distinct from promoting an agenda—advocacy.

But it’s not all a misunderstanding. Some professors actually describe themselves as “scholar-activists.” Teaching a contentious ideological position, not as a subject for critical examination but, rather, with the intent to dogmatically advocate for it in the hope that students accept it as true, represents an abuse of the influential position instructors hold over their students. The activist instructor often justifies her demagoguing on the grounds that the university should be helping improve our democracy. She sees her politics as doing just that. Inspired by scholars from John Dewey to Angela Davis, she frames her activism as advocacy for democratic principles.

[AndyJackson]

Oh the free market will fix this. A degree from many of our elite institutions is now somewhere between suspect and worthless.