When you send your youngster off to
college, you might not mind that they will have to walk on eggshells, respect
taboos, snitch on fellow students for politically incorrect jokes and learn to
use ad hominem arguments as a means to attack ideas they find “disagreeable.”
If that’s your preference, you can choose from a wide variety of America’s top-ranked
colleges. If you want to send your youngster to colleges that are seriously
committed to civil and diverse debate, pick up a copy of the June 2019 edition
of Reason magazine for some guidance.
Professors
Debra Mashek and Jonathan Haidt authored “10 Colleges Where You Won’t Have to
Walk on Eggshells.” Mashek and Haidt are, respectively, faculty members of
Harvey Mudd College and New York University. Haidt is the co-founder of the
Heterodox Academy and Mashek is its executive director. Heterodox Academy is
nonpartisan and boasts a membership of more than 2,500 faculty and college
administrators who advocate for open inquiry and civil disagreement on college
campuses and in academic disciplines.
The Mashek and Haidt article
discusses 10 colleges in alphabetical order. Among them is Chapman University,
whose president, Daniele Struppa, is “an outspoken advocate of academic freedom
and freedom of speech.” Struppa has little tolerance for the political
correctness so prevalent at most of the nation’s colleges.
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The
University of Chicago has set the gold standard on free speech and open inquiry. In
2014, it created its “Statement on Principles of Free Expression” (aka the
Chicago Principles). Those principles provide the framework for thinking about
the importance of dissent as well as the role of the university for
establishing the platform for debate. University of Chicago president Robert
Zimmer says, “We have an obligation to see that the greatest variety of
perspectives is brought to bear on issues before us as scholars and citizens.” The
Chicago Principles, or substantially similar ones, have been adopted by 55
schools across the nation. In June 2018, the University of Chicago received
Heterodox Academy’s Institutional Excellence Award in recognition of its
stellar culture and support for open inquiry.
Other
colleges listed in the Mashek and Haidt article, where students won’t have to
walk on eggshells include Arizona State University, Claremont McKenna College,
Kansas State University, Kenyon College, Linn-Benton Community College, St.
John’s College, University of Richmond and Purdue University. It’s
worth noting that Mitch Daniels is president of Purdue University and former
two-term governor of the state of Indiana. Daniels and his interim provost Jay
Akridge wrote this message to the Purdue community: “At Purdue, we protect and
promote the right to free and open inquiry in all matters and guarantee all
members of the University community the broadest possible latitude to speak,
write, listen challenge and learn.”
In my opinion, it is truly a
tragic state of affairs when free speech and free inquiry require protection at
most institutions of higher learning. Indeed, it has been freedom in the
marketplace of ideas that has made the United States, as well as other western
nations, leaders in virtually every area of human endeavor. A monopoly of ideas
is just as dangerous as a monopoly in other areas of our lives such as monopoly
in political power and the production of goods and services.
At the end of Professors Mashek’s and Haidt’s article, they come up
with a few suggestions for parents. Visit the Foundation for Individual Rights
in Education website to find out about a particular college’s agenda to
suppress free speech. By all means, check out the Heterodox Academy website.
Search the college’s website for terms such as “open inquiry,” “freedom of
expression” and “free speech.” Examine the college’s calendar of events to see
whether speakers with diverse opinions are invited. Visit the campus. Talk with actual
students about their experiences. In this article, Mashek and Haidt give
specific questions to ask. I’d add to their list of things to do on a campus
visit: Talk to the local police, bartenders and hospital people about the
college. They might give you insights that an admissions officer would choose
to keep hidden.
Walter
E. Williams is the John M. Olin distinguished professor of economics at George
Mason University, and a nationally syndicated columnist. To find out more about
Walter E. Williams and read features by other Creators Syndicate columnists and
cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page.
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