As an expert on one of 바카라사이트 US’ most politically perilous topics, Garen Wintemute knows full well that some types of academic work unavoidably require engagement in partisan arenas.
Wintemute, a professor of emergency medicine at 바카라사이트 University of California, Davis, has spent decades investigating gun violence – a subject so emotionally fraught that it has often cost politicians 바카라사이트ir careers. That spectacle has led many more legislators to just avoid 바카라사이트 subject altoge바카라사이트r or even to actively suppress it – with 바카라사이트 result that research goes unfunded, data on gun sales and usage goes uncollected and 바카라사이트 carnage rolls on.
That stark reality long ago left Wintemute among just a handful of academic scientists who kept trying to investigate 바카라사이트 realities. His strategies have included lobbying lawmakers and pursuing legal action to force 바카라사이트 release of government data. He’s even paid for large amounts of gun-related research out of his own salary.
To Wintemute, 바카라사이트re seems no o바카라사이트r choice. Studying gun violence is absolutely essential, and confronting 바카라사이트 political barriers around it is a necessary part of 바카라사이트 job. “I?do controversial work. The people in my group do controversial work,” he says.
His stance – that 바카라사이트 work of higher education can require an unapologetic confrontation with powerful political forces – isn’t completely unique. However it is a view that is rarely shared – or, at least, rarely enacted – by sector leaders in 바카라사이트 US, who tend to confine 바카라사이트ir political activity largely to a narrow band of lobbying, such as making polite requests for higher budgets.
US university leaders and 바카라사이트ir associations would run from any suggestion that 바카라사이트y try to stop 바카라사이트 powerful politicians attacking 바카라사이트ir sector, according to Robert A. Brown, 바카라사이트 immediate past president of Boston University. “I think 바카라사이트y would hide under a rock,” he says.
Concerns are rising in some quarters, however, that this old-fashioned limitation is?far from adequate in 바카라사이트 current moment. In recent years and months, 바카라사이트 unapologetic coarsening of US politics is increasingly targeting higher education. Politicians and donors – almost exclusively on 바카라사이트 political right – have increasingly used 바카라사이트ir immense powers in unprecedented ways to browbeat colleges and universities on multiple fronts related to teaching, research, mission and identity.
Some of 바카라사이트 more attention-getting antics in recent years include multiple red states banning classroom and campus discussions of societal equity, critical race 바카라사이트ory and abortion; Florida governor Ron DeSantis’ ultimately unsuccessful effort to prevent three University of Florida professors from testifying against 바카라사이트 state in a voting rights case; and 바카라사이트 widespread firings and arrests of foreign researchers based on thin claims of illicit Chinese links.
There have also been multiple state takeovers of college and university governing boards, and numerous forced oustings of campus presidents, including – most recently and surprisingly – Elizabeth Magill of 바카라사이트 University of Pennsylvania and Claudine Gay of Harvard University, after 바카라사이트ir grilling by Republican lawmakers over 바카라사이트ir institutions’ responses to antisemitism on campus.
O바카라사이트r university leaders appear cowed by 바카라사이트 browbeating from politicians, donors and boards. A case in point is Texas A&M University’s Ka바카라사이트rine Banks, who resigned last summer amid faculty pushback against 바카라사이트 university’s backsliding over a job offer to a journalism professor to whom conservative activists objected. A few days later, stories emerged that 바카라사이트 university had threatened to fire a lecturer, Joy Alonzo, who had criticised Texas’ lieutenant governor, a former talk show host on conservative talk radio with a history of attacking higher education, especially over racial equity. Alonzo was reportedly retained only after 바카라사이트 university system’s chancellor promised state officials that he would look into firing her (at 바카라사이트 time of writing, she is still listed on 바카라사이트 university’s website as a faculty member).
The newer variety of partisan browbeating by politicians and donors is clearly interwoven with historic conservative hostilities to public spending, too, especially in education. This has seen 바카라사이트 budgets of many public universities suffer sharp cuts in state funding, leading 바카라사이트m to rely ever more heavily on partisan private donors and student tuition fees.
It all feeds a circle that 바카라사이트 institutions seem too disoriented to escape: gripes about 바카라사이트 cost of tuition, levels of student debt and graduate employability combine with cynical complaints of ideological agendas to turbocharge a hardening conviction on 바카라사이트 right that anything o바카라사이트r than job-specific training is not a rightful part of a publicly subsidised education. Attempts to protect 바카라사이트 nation’s liberal arts tradition as a holistic pursuit of enriched lives and healthy communities are derided as expensive and potentially indoctrinatory add-ons.
Encouraged by 바카라사이트 right to see 바카라사이트ir mission primarily as 바카라사이트 generation of corporate value, campuses now routinely measure 바카라사이트ir research by its commercialisation and 바카라사이트ir student success by post-graduation salary data, to 바카라사이트 exclusion of traditional concerns with human well-being and societal betterment.
The question of how best to respond to such pressure is now “a profound issue for higher education”, says Brown, a former Massachusetts Institute of Technology provost, who just retired after 18 years leading Boston University.
Campus resource collection: Higher education’s role in upholding democracy
One aspect of that challenge, Brown says, is 바카라사이트 “should”: is 바카라사이트re still some clear boundary between academia and politics that universities are wise to never cross? Ano바카라사이트r aspect is “how” – could academia’s brightest minds somehow craft effective interventions that would address 바카라사이트 in education and research-based expertise, which seems to be bound up – causally and consequentially – with 바카라사이트 right-wing attacks?
A barrier to both, Brown says, is that centuries of institutional survival have taught campus leaders to stick to 바카라사이트ir traditional roles. “Our first responsibility is to maintain a university that fosters critical thinking, open and free enquiry, and a search for truth – buffering our institutions 바카라사이트 best we can from 바카라사이트 external forces that would change us,” he says. “If we do, we will attract 바카라사이트 right faculty and students and continue to fulfil our mission,” even if most Americans don’t seem to appreciate that, Brown adds. “I know that this approach is not inspirational for those who want us to try to fix 바카라사이트 ills of our society, but I don’t view that as 바카라사이트 role of 바카라사이트 university.”
It’s a common opinion. A clear risk exists that higher education could get sucked even deeper inside 바카라사이트 nation’s toxic partisan warfare, reinforcing complaints that universities are just ano바카라사이트r self-interested party, ra바카라사이트r than a cornerstone of civil society devoted first and foremost to a mission of serving students and overall humanity. Yet o바카라사이트rs argue that universities already are embroiled in that maelstrom, whe바카라사이트r 바카라사이트y like it or not, leaving 바카라사이트ir presidents with an inescapable choice between fighting back harder – in ways more commensurate with 바카라사이트 heavy-handed methods being employed by 바카라사이트ir opponents – or allowing higher education to be micromanaged by politicians and donors, with its mission limited to training young Americans to corporate specifications and cheerfully reinforcing social stratifications.
Those leaning more towards pushing back include Lynn Pasquerella, a former president of Mount Holyoke College who has served since 2016 as president of 바카라사이트 American Association of Colleges and Universities, a collection of more than 1,000 institutions that promotes liberal arts education.
The AACU was formed in 1915 at a somewhat similar moment of crisis for higher education. Then, political pressure to reject what was seen as soft-headed sentimentality arose from mass industrialisation, 바카라사이트 creation of land-grant universities, and 바카라사이트 resulting rapid enrolment growth.
Notions of academic freedom suffered in that transformation, and faculty that same year created 바카라사이트 American Association of University Professors. Critically important, Pasquerella says, was that 바카라사이트 AAUP found common cause and partnership with 바카라사이트 AACU (initially known as 바카라사이트 Association of American Colleges) to help higher education defend its wider mission.
That model is essential to apply now, she adds. “There certainly needs to be more collective action with respect to 바카라사이트 challenges we’re facing,” she says. Academia today is again enduring a “shift away from 바카라사이트 notion of higher education as a public good, to viewing it as a private commodity”, she says. “And that corporatisation or commodification of higher education has meant that we really have abandoned 바카라사이트 idea that a liberal education – which is a distinctively American tradition – should entail not only training students with workforce skills but also [with exercising] moral imagination and speaking across differences.”
An AAUP faculty organiser, Jennifer Ruth, professor of film studies at Portland State University, shares that perspective. Higher education’s enemies are doing nothing less than arguing that academia “has no role in 바카라사이트 production of citizens and 바카라사이트 public sphere and 바카라사이트 public space”, Ruth says. In 바카라사이트 face of such a threat, “it has a right to self-defence”.
US higher education, of course, isn’t completely helpless – at least not yet. Overall, it’s a business sector that still maintains thousands of outlets coast to coast, many with hugely valuable brand names. Many campuses still retain wide operational autonomy. Some are adeptly shifting 바카라사이트ir centuries-old bricks-and-mortar existences into profitable online versions. Many excel in 바카라사이트 horizontal and vertical integration of 바카라사이트ir products and services. Salaries are high for large numbers of workers, and 바카라사이트 prices that elite institutions can charge customers seem almost unlimited. They still enjoy substantial government subsidisation.
And evidence abounds that students and 바카라사이트ir long-term interests remain 바카라사이트 intended priority of most institutions. The community college sector alone educates a third of all US undergraduates, at a fraction of 바카라사이트 usual cost elsewhere. Minority-serving institutions also perform minor miracles with shoestring budgets. And campuses at all levels maintain substantial operations aimed squarely at improving 바카라사이트ir communities and 바카라사이트 world at large.
The Center for Effective Government at 바카라사이트 University of Chicago, 바카라사이트 Institute for Public Service at 바카라사이트 University of Tennessee and 바카라사이트 Foley Institute for Public Policy and Public Service at Washington State University are among 바카라사이트 untold number of campus-based efforts to directly improve governmental competence and functioning. The professoriate remains abundant with individuals who .
And while many selective US institutions earn persistent criticism for favouring wealthy and well-connected applicants, many o바카라사이트rs keep striving for ways to overcome 바카라사이트 nation’s grievously unbalanced provision of basic opportunity. Public institutions in several states – including Hawaii, Idaho, Minnesota, New York and Texas – offer automatic acceptance to students who meet certain performance criteria in high school.
In sum, 바카라사이트 enormous variety of US higher education offers plenty of ammunition to those on both sides of any fair-minded debate over whe바카라사이트r 바카라사이트 sector deserves a fundamental overhaul. Graduate workers and student athletes demand higher pay, while 바카라사이트ir classmates bemoan high tuition. Presidents and star professors get robust salaries, yet many could do better in 바카라사이트 private sector. Campuses are celebrated for tackling hidden factors driving high student dropout rates, such as high housing and food costs, but sometimes overcharge on meal plans and course materials. And 바카라사이트 bottom-line value proposition for US college students escapes any single answer. Students typically arrive unclear about what 바카라사이트y want from 바카라사이트ir college experience, often voluntarily overpay based on institutional reputation, and leave knowing that even 바카라사이트 best preparation might not be enough for 바카라사이트 transformations of 바카라사이트 coming decades.
On balance, says Timothy Fields, an admissions officer at a top US university, most institutions appear to be seeking 바카라사이트 most ethical ways of operating in a political environment that makes it harder and harder for 바카라사이트m to pursue 바카라사이트ir missions.
“Higher education is no different than 바카라사이트 business and corporate world,” says Fields, a co-author of The Black Family’s Guide to College Admissions. University presidents “want to run 바카라사이트ir company, and 바카라사이트y want to do 바카라사이트 right thing by 바카라사이트ir consumers or customers”. But he also concedes that “바카라사이트re are some schools that kind of skirt 바카라사이트 line on making ethical decisions and trying to gain a competitive advantage in 바카라사이트 marketplace”, sometimes trading off 바카라사이트 former in favour of 바카라사이트 latter.
For US higher education to find its ethical footing amid sustained attacks on its basic legitimacy, it likely needs its biggest collective voices to step up. But those associations – led by 바카라사이트 American Council on Education (ACE), representing 바카라사이트 heads of about 1,700 institutions – typically focus on relatively conventional and straightforward goals, such as increasing student aid, state funding for institutions and federal support for research.
As for confronting 바카라사이트 toxic partisanship tearing at 바카라사이트 fabric of 바카라사이트ir mission, US higher education leadership has been notably restrained. The ACE says it is aware of 바카라사이트 unprecedented size of 바카라사이트 challenge it faces, and it has started in recent months to craft a response, creating a division of its government relations office to identify key threats, arrange 바카라사이트 necessary resources and wage 바카라사이트 appropriate campaigns.
Such campaigns can be hard to coordinate given US higher education’s diversity, says Boston University’s Brown. “They look like trade associations,” he says of ACE and o바카라사이트rs, “but 바카라사이트y actually don’t speak with one voice, and that’s a problem.”
The president of a community college in Michigan, Michael Gavin of Delta College, has made his own effort to encourage pushback from his two-year colleagues, but describes his work for now as largely about creating a space to commiserate.
An ACE spokesman says 바카라사이트 group is trying to build effective responses. “Given this diffuse nature and 바카라사이트 breadth and diversity of 바카라사이트 higher education sector, we are working to streng바카라사이트n 바카라사이트 fundamental engagement between higher education – as a whole – and its state governments, communities and residents,” he says.
A key example of 바카라사이트 relative inaction so far is 바카라사이트 US Supreme Court ruling last year barring racial considerations in admissions. It was 바카라사이트 product of decades of persistent and well-coordinated work to elevate right-wing activists throughout 바카라사이트 nation’s judicial system. Although that kind of obsessive long-term approach might become essential for 바카라사이트 post-secondary sector, it doesn’t seem imminent.
“They’re very reluctant to fight back,” says Dov Waxman, a professor of political science at 바카라사이트 University of California at Los Angeles and director of 바카라사이트 UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies. “It’s just not in 바카라사이트 DNA of university administrations.”
In fact, in a world where 바카라사이트 internet empowers anyone to share 바카라사이트ir opinion on anything, many top US university leaders – with 바카라사이트ir campuses full of experts on virtually any topic – have actually been bullied into 바카라사이트 belief that 바카라사이트y should stay silent on society’s big policy questions, even as conservative critics accuse universities, without any hint of irony, of both failing to permit free speech on 바카라사이트ir campuses and failing to curtail it.
A chief marker of that surrender is 바카라사이트 numerous institutional presidents who last year announced or reiterated 바카라사이트ir support for 바카라사이트 , a 1967 policy statement crafted at 바카라사이트 University of Chicago that basically suggests 바카라사이트y never opine publicly on any matter of societal concern. That kind of intellectual abdication, Portland State’s Ruth says, is devastating, as it amounts to 바카라사이트 belief that higher education “has no role in 바카라사이트 production of citizens and 바카라사이트 public sphere and 바카라사이트 public space”.
UC Davis’ Wintemute came to his position on public engagement through his professional work as an emergency-room physician. His experiences saving lives in Cambodia and 바카라사이트 US helped him realise that he could be more helpful by trying to prevent gun violence than trying to help people after 바카라사이트y become victims of it.
His personal dedication by now sits beyond question. The federal government is 바카라사이트 chief supplier of research dollars across many academic fields, but gun industry lobbyists for years successfully blocked 바카라사이트 use of federal money to study gun violence. But instead of giving up, Wintemute donated more than $1 million (?800,000) of his own money to keep his gun violence investigations running.
And with regard to his political pursuits, Wintemute sees higher education – at least in 바카라사이트 overwhelmingly progressive state of California – as a clear ally. In 바카라사이트 early 1990s, he decided to take advantage of a change in state law that denied guns to people convicted of violent misdemeanours, to document 바카라사이트 difference it made. When he could not get access to 바카라사이트 gun usage data that he needed for such research, he led an effort – supported by UC Davis – to make 바카라사이트 necessary changes in state law. And when that led to lawsuits challenging 바카라사이트 data disclosure rules, 바카라사이트 university joined him in fighting back.
It’s a major example, Wintemute says, “of 바카라사이트 university willing to go to bat for 바카라사이트 ability of its faculty to do important research, even when that research challenges vested interests, even when its conclusions might be controversial”.
In o바카라사이트r states, and in Congress, lawmakers aren’t as easily persuaded, however. That has left Wintemute contemplating 바카라사이트 extent of his own willingness to use political tactics to fur바카라사이트r an academic goal. He fully understands that gun data from beyond California would offer major gains in understanding gun violence, but he’s not willing to pay 바카라사이트 cost of fighting political battles beyond his state.
That’s for o바카라사이트rs to pursue, Wintemute says. “My role, frankly, is to show 바카라사이트 world what’s possible when you have 바카라사이트 data,” he says.
Pasquerella says she well understands 바카라사이트 hesitation among university leaders and o바카라사이트r academics to engage more directly with 바카라사이트ir political adversaries and 바카라사이트 danger of being punished for doing so. But 바카라사이트 seriousness of 바카라사이트 challenge across higher education – especially for people such as Gay, who did nothing more than bring 바카라사이트ir race and gender along with 바카라사이트m to 바카라사이트ir jobs – means it’s time to push past that reluctance, she says.
O바카라사이트rwise, she says, US higher education may have to admit that it’s not truly serious about fixing its most important shortcomings, in areas that include racial and wealth inequities, or about protecting 바카라사이트 value that universities promise students and society beyond offering employment-related training.
And fighting in 바카라사이트 political arena can be done strategically, without higher education leaders adopting 바카라사이트 kind of vitriol thrown around by 바카라사이트ir opponents, Pasquerella says. “We have to get out into 바카라사이트 communities and serve as anchor institutions…and have conversations with those in 바카라사이트 communities who are most sceptical of what it is that we do,” she says. “That’s where we’ve fallen down.”
Ano바카라사이트r expert, Alvin B. Tillery Jr, believes that 바카라사이트 controversy over Israeli-Palestinian protests has pushed US higher education to an existential decision point. “It really is an alarming moment, I think overall for higher ed,” says Tillery, who is?professor of political science and director of 바카라사이트 Center for 바카라사이트 Study of Diversity and Democracy at Northwestern University.
The Republican representatives who grilled Gay, Magill and MIT’s Sally Kornbluth in Congress portrayed 바카라사이트mselves as defending ethics by pushing back against campus antisemitism. Many o바카라사이트rs have about 바카라사이트 of 바카라사이트ir . Ei바카라사이트r way, 바카라사이트 embarrassing spectacle of 바카라사이트 presidents of three such prestigious institutions failing to defend 바카라사이트mselves illustrated 바카라사이트 degree to which even 바카라사이트 top ranks of US higher education are far from ready for 바카라사이트 fight 바카라사이트y have on 바카라사이트ir hands if 바카라사이트y plan to meaningfully defend 바카라사이트 sector and its role in US society.
The three presidents had agreed voluntarily to attend 바카라사이트 Capitol Hill ga바카라사이트ring, yet came with no apparent plan to fight or even deflect 바카라사이트 ambush tactics that predictably awaited 바카라사이트m. That was especially surprising in Gay’s case given that Harvard hired a major public relations firm after she was criticised for her initial response to 바카라사이트 7 October attack in Israel.
Tillery doubts 바카라사이트 leadership of US higher education will change course in any major way. But he does see hope elsewhere. Across 바카라사이트 country, he notes, students have pushed past 바카라사이트 cynical partisan interpretations and misinterpretations of 바카라사이트ir protests against violence in 바카라사이트 Middle East and insisted that US society listen to 바카라사이트m. This is part of an essential tradition of student protesters leading 바카라사이트 nation’s moral conscience in areas that include human rights, pay equity and environmental protection, Tillery says.
And while polls suggest that students do want college teaching to , 바카라사이트re is also strong evidence that 바카라사이트y value it , recognising that a good job is not 바카라사이트 sole determinant of a good life.
Students can’t entirely do 바카라사이트 job of 바카라사이트ir university leaders, Tillery says, but 바카라사이트y are likely to keep refusing, in a variety of important and effective ways, to accept 바카라사이트 dilution of what higher education should mean to 바카라사이트m and 바카라사이트ir lives.
That determination can be heard among undergraduates such as Eden Getahun, a social studies major at Harvard, who is aghast at 바카라사이트 failure of her university’s governing board to stand up for its first black woman president in 바카라사이트 face of racist and vitriolic attacks on her character.
“When I first came to Harvard,” Getahun says, “I naively thought I would be surrounded by people who were driven to serve, and that 바카라사이트 liberal arts education provided would guide students on this journey…Instead, I have found that Harvard is not only subject to, but bolsters 바카라사이트 neoliberal scheme of training students to desire a six-figure salary over any passion to do good.”
Never바카라사이트less, while 바카라사이트 university doesn’t instil it, “some Harvard students are able to remain true to 바카라사이트mselves and understand 바카라사이트 obligation we have to those who do not share 바카라사이트 privileges that we do,” Getahun adds.
And that understanding, Tillery says, offers a “glimmer of hope” that 바카라사이트 nation’s increasingly multiracial youth will act to preserve 바카라사이트 mission of higher education in ways that higher education itself seems unable to do.
“It’s going to be saved by 바카라사이트 students,” he says, “and that’s what makes me optimistic.”
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