In recent decades, America’s educational institutions have completely departed from their original mission and have finally reached a stage where the very concept of “higher education” is ambiguous and arbitrary.
For instance, consider the case of New College of Florida, which has just been censured by the American Association of University Professors for an alleged breach of governance. The school’s new board, of which I’m a member, is accused of making changes without meaningful faculty involvement, including replacing the president and eliminating gender studies as a major. In other words, we’re being censured by an association of educational professionals for removing the main obstacles to education at New College.
The AAUP swims in an alphabet soup of organizations just like it, which try to pressure college administrators into complying with their demands. Institutions on the association’s censure list are invited to “work with” the AAUP to address issues and get off the list.
But therein lies the question: Why bother?
The AAUP has no authority to censure anyone. Some colleges, such as Frank Phillips College, have been under censure for decades and simply ignore it. More than 20 institutions have been on the list for at least 20 years, to no harm. Hillsdale College has been on the AAUP’s censure list for the past 30 years, and it’s growing by leaps and bounds.
No institution on the censure list runs the risk of reputational damage because the AAUP is itself disreputable. Like the American Council on Education or the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, the AAUP claims to be nonpartisan but consistently takes progressive positions on academic topics.
Gender identity, climate change, and social justice are the AAUP’s business, not education. The association routinely makes public statements advocating diversity, equity, and inclusion in academia. The AAUP’s speakers predominantly represent left-leaning causes and focus on topics that align with progressive ideologies. Last but not least, the association works in close partnership with Randy Weingarten’s American Federation of Teachers. And did I mention the association was founded by John Dewey?
The AAUP’s gesture is nothing but a reminder that the self-appointed arbiters of higher education have completely lost sight of their primary mission: education. The education bureaucracy at many colleges and universities is increasingly preoccupied with political activism and consolidating power. As I’ve written about elsewhere, New College’s efforts to restore a proper understanding of the liberal arts challenge the crushing DEI conformity that has seeped into many academic institutions such as the AAUP.
What’s especially frustrating is that free speech is genuinely in danger today, with incidents of violent antisemitism and censorship on college campuses. Harvard’s removal of its president, Claudine Gay, was a watershed moment in exposing academia’s underlying rot. Yet, New College is supposedly a problem?
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Ideological conformity and administrative overreach threaten the very essence of higher education. That is why, just this month, the University of Florida eliminated all positions associated with DEI. The AAUP’s censure of New College is a feeble response to DEI’s downward trend.
But New College, for its part, intends to continue its return to the fundamentals of teaching and intellectual diversity as a beacon in an era where such principles are under attack. To that purpose, it’s time to reevaluate the role of organizations such as the AAUP and champion institutions that actually prioritize the true mission of education over political posturing.
Matthew Spalding is the dean of the Van Andel Graduate School of Government at Hillsdale College’s Washington, D.C., campus and a New College of Florida’s Board of Trustees member.