Sam Wilks’ Post

The CHE conference over the past two days amplified the importance of institutional autonomy, public responsibility and academic freedom. Through critical debate, it was evident to me that corporatisation creep is fast rearing its head in academia and will have a noticeable impact on higher education. The time is NOW to steer the complex landscape of leadership in a historic colonial academic world; and that agenda is fast becoming an ever increasing priority. It's more explicit than ever that academic Senates change the way in which they pursue their institutional objectives to adopt a more forward thinking approach in addressing the challenges that face higher education today, working towards a better tomorrow.

The upshot: “…Authoritarian sentiment is no longer creeping into the U.S. It has arrived. Restoring public trust in the democratic value of higher education requires rediscovering the university’s purpose. Principled criticism of universities is necessary. Such criticism, however, should be rooted not in authoritarian tropes, but in healthy and informative deliberation about polices, curriculums, institutional histories and shared governance. We must recognize and reject hyperbole about atypical campus radicals, the private political views of students and faculty, and the imagined social evils of college campuses. Colleges and universities still evince many faults and inequities, but they are more intellectually and culturally diverse, and more accommodating to free expression and social tolerance, than ever before. That’s why they’re under attack. Defending universities against authoritarian visions of higher education is now more important than ever.”

Colleges and universities are facing a crisis of public confidence. Among the general public, there is a growing mistrust in the value and integrity of higher education. Bradford Vivian's interesting piece in today's edition of Inside Higher Ed asks who benefits the most from the negative portrayal and misrepresentation of higher education. And he correctly concludes, "Colleges and universities still evince many faults and inequities, but they are more intellectually and culturally diverse, and more accommodating to free expression and social tolerance than ever before. That’s why they’re under attack. Defending universities against authoritarian visions of higher education is now more important than ever." https://lnkd.in/dQv2r6fw

The attack on social sciences and humanities in the UK is abhorrent. It is fundamentally down to a set narrative that says these disciplines are neither prestigious or profitable. This is an ignorant perspective, and a lie based on greed, pretensions and snobbery that is warping the minds of prospective learners. The research and intellectual contributions of the greatest minds behind our very civilizations pertain to subjects under these overarching disciplinary themes. To negate their value, in and to society, is to negate the value of society itself! The university sector has a moral responsibility to change the narrative, and champion the profitability of such disciplines in our society. Any university that fails in that fundamental responsiblity has no business calling themselves a university at all.

And here is a proposal to reform universities from Professor John von Heyking, Chair of Political Science at the University of Lethbridge. This builds on the notion that what will be needed is the intentional creation of programs and even entire departments, both at the high school and post-secondary level, to counter the toxic impact of DEI as it's currently conceived. But beyond just the failure of contemporary DEI to create real improvements in equality, we need intellectual diversity at universities to ensure students are exposed to a range of thinkers.

Do universities have a right to remain silent? Or should they adopt an explicit position commenting on specific events, decisions and, in this case, on a war? Massey Provost Professor Giselle Byrnes shares her views on the topic below👇 ‘As appropriate for a university, Massey has not taken a single position on this issue’. This phrase, an ironic recitation of the university's own statement on why it was not making comment on the war in Gaza, appeared last week boldly emblazoned in red, black, green and white paint on the walls of a stairwell in the Fine Arts building on Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa Massey University’s Wellington campus. It was part of a student protest against the university’s perceived inaction in not publicly supporting the Palestinian cause. The role of the university itself in this is clear. It is to facilitate a safe environment for staff and students to express their academic freedom; it is not for the institution to make a specific statement or adopt a singular position on any particular issue. Individuals and groups within a university may express views, but surely it would be impossible for all minds to think alike – an idea which is itself anathema to the diversity of views universities seek to foster. Read more 👇

The university’s ideological narrowing has advanced so far that even liberal institutionalists—faculty who believe universities should be places of intellectual pluralism and adhere to the traditional academic norms of merit and free inquiry—are in decline. The presence of conservative scholars in universities plays a critical role in fostering this diversity, contributing to a dynamic and inclusive intellectual environment. Despite the current trends that show a decline in conservative faculty, it is imperative to understand why their presence is necessary for the health and vitality of academic institutions ... https://lnkd.in/ehtGyWmj

Here's an important reminder from Bradford Vivian about how the current anti-university discourse in the US is rooted in the growing movement of global far-right authoritarianism. In the US, this anti-university discourse has been taken up not just by the right wing, where there are direct ties to the European far right, but also by many considering themselves to be "liberals" or "moderates" as they complain about the specters of "wokeism" or "cancel culture." Anyone hoping to help the US move toward a healthy, inclusive, liberal democracy--and to resist backsliding toward authoritarianism--would do well to consider Vivian's warning about adopting the authoritarian tropes against higher education. "Restoring public trust in the democratic value of higher education requires rediscovering the university’s purpose. Principled criticism of universities is necessary. Such criticism, however, should be rooted not in authoritarian tropes, but in healthy and informative deliberation about polices, curriculums, institutional histories and shared governance. We must recognize and reject hyperbole about atypical campus radicals, the private political views of students and faculty, and the imagined social evils of college campuses. "Colleges and universities still evince many faults and inequities, but they are more intellectually and culturally diverse, and more accommodating to free expression and social tolerance, than ever before. That’s why they’re under attack. Defending universities against authoritarian visions of higher education is now more important than ever." https://lnkd.in/edgUunVS

"And so it may turn out that an effective response to the crisis of the university could be the beginning of a response to the larger civic crisis we face, by forging a discipline of inquiry focused on the responsibilities of the citizen, and on reminding us of precisely the truths that we have been forgetting in America." This is one of the most important pieces you will read this year on the future of universities. https://lnkd.in/encat3J3

A recommended read on how to survive and resist racial oppression in the academy.