OPINIONS
Anna-Kynthia Bousdoukou
October 29 2024
If ever there was doubt that higher education would take its place at the very center of U.S. culture wars, such uncertainty has now been laid to rest. This has serious implications for the strength of our democracy. Politicians and media influencers on the right charge that radical professors indoctrinate students to leftist ideas and point to student mobs who cancel, disinvite, and otherwise suppress speakers with whom they disagree. Faculty and students on the left charge that universities are racist and classist institutions, and seek not only to “de-colonize” the curriculum, but also to press universities to defund campus police and divest from, and sanction, offending countries. These critiques from across the spectrum become click-bait, drawing the attention of millions of likes and dislikes.
The media glare surrounding these stances represents a distorted view of the work that is routinely accomplished inside universities: the day-to-day teaching that builds students’ mastery and preparation for their lives as workers and citizens, faculty’s research impact on society, and higher education’s direct benefits to local, national, and international community practitioners and partners. The media and political misrepresentations carry risks for a free society, since higher education is a cornerstone of well-functioning democracy. When the “two sides” of a culture war are pitted against one another (and there are almost always only two sides depicted), they put the squeeze on the post-secondary sector and leave many citizens feeling skeptical about academic, scientific, and legal expertise. A Gallup poll conducted in 2023 revealed that just 36 percent of Americans express confidence in higher education, down nearly 20 percentage points from only one decade earlier. This precipitous decrease in trust is especially pronounced among Republicans, although Democrats’ confidence has fallen too. As I have written elsewhere, both the left and right are winning and losing in higher education today, alienating one other, as well as a large swath of the public.
Why is there so much contentiousness surrounding our nation’s colleges and universities? One answer is that we live in a media-saturated age, in which new technological platforms spread disinformation like never before. When media, politicians, and influencers operate in an incentive structure to quickly disseminate any “news” that supports their brand, small gaffes made on the part of students, faculty, or administrators go viral. These incidents are then characterized as representative of the entire sector. Over time, this free-for-all has had a serious corrosive effect on trust in academia and other social institutions.
Another reason that higher education is mired in contention is the deepening divide in Americans’ economic and social outcomes. Citizens’ health, wealth, and wellbeing (including even mortality rates) are now predicted more by educational achievement than by other social factors, including race, gender, and geography. This has led those without college degrees to become increasingly resentful of those with them.
Overlaying both of these social realities is our polarized political environment. Americans increasingly conceptualize politics less as an arena to debate substantive policy differences and more as a zero-sum game waged between conservatives and progressives. Political partisanship is now a mega-identity for Americans, and where and whether one attends college is increasingly linked to these mega-identities.
At a time of crisis, what can universities do?
For all these reasons, contention ensues. Yet while conflict seems to have reached a fever pitch, it is important to remember that fights over education have been around for millennia. Socrates, after all, was put to death for corrupting the minds of youth. In much the same way that historians warn us not to fall into the trap of believing that our current political era is the most divisive in history, scholars of higher education remind us that the sector has always been a contested field. It has found its way out of thickets before, and it can do so again.
At this moment of concern, one looks to constructive ideas from within and beyond the college gates to remedy the health of the institutions of higher learning and stabilize public trust. Colleges and universities should seek to enhance civic engagement and inclusive dialogue among all of their constituents and accentuate research with direct, real-world impacts. They must welcome faculty, students, and outside partners from a wide range of ideological perspectives and social backgrounds. They should seek to be forums for debate, disagreement, and deliberation; spaces where younger and older scholars understand their rights of free expression, and also the responsibilities they are expected to exercise in their community. They should help students with all career aspirations develop capacities for participation in public life, which includes leaning into disagreement in respectful ways, not shying away from discomfort. As colleges and universities do these things better, they will slowly redress the harms of today’s culture war and enable students and others to refocus on our shared democratic culture.
*The opinion article is published in light of the upcoming SNF Dialogues discussion, which will explore the role of universities in modern democracy.