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At LewRockwell.com, Atilla Sulker outlines the way the left has expanded its control of academia from the Liberal Arts department, into the hard sciences. He writes (abridged):
Originally published by Townhall.com, 7/9/20
We thought it was only the humanities department that was run by leftists.
Time to think again. Before we know it, the same will be said of the math and engineering departments.
None of this should be surprising. The leftist takeover of academia is nothing new.
But how did the university debate stage fall into the hands of a concentrated and uniform consortium of individuals? The root of this problem lies in the way Americans have been conditioned to think about higher education.
Americans have fundamentally forgotten the place of the university in the societal fabric, allowing a small group of left-wing academics to take control.
Nowadays, universities churn out so many students with grim employment prospects. One study found that only 55% of college graduates are in careers closely related to their field of study. The remaining 45% in mismatched careers earn less, on average.
With both society and bureaucrats confused over the purpose of higher education, it’s no wonder that an advantageous group of academics has been able to enforce so much thought control. The last thing we need is to send off more unambitious students to be used as pawns by clever academics. They will never question what they are told. They will go along with it. This kind of tacit approval is the equivalent to saying “yes.”
The solution to this problem involves a serious reassessment of the role of the American university. Only then will a real battleground for ideas emerge.
Atilla Sulker is the CSO of Blue Ocean, Inc., an augmented reality education company in Tallahassee, Florida and writes for LRC, The Epoch Times, Mises, FEE, Townhall, and the Washington Examiner.
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