I recently debated Todd Wolfson, President of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), over the loss of institutional neutrality in higher education. In the debate, I raised AAUP’s own abandonment of neutrality principles, which Wolfson acknowledged. While the viewers overwhelmingly supported a return to neutrality principles, Wolfson was undeterred. Indeed, this week Inside Higher Ed reported that the AAUP had moved forward with its first political endorsement in its history and would make more endorsements going forward. The first endorsement captured the radical agenda of the AAUP: Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed.
As I discuss in my book “The Indispensable Right,” there has been a systematic purging of conservative, libertarian, and contrarian voices in higher education in America. This viewpoint intolerance has been fueled by the AAUP, which was created to foster intellectual exchange and diversity.
I previously criticized the selection of Wolfson who promised to make the AAUP more of a “fighting organization” for liberal causes. A Rutgers University anthropologist and former union leader, Wolfson is a political activist who doubled down on the ideological intolerance that now defines higher education.
As promised, the AAUP quickly became a more radical and activist organization. It adopted an anti-Israel boycott policy and unleashed attacks on Trump supporters as “fascists.” It has targeted civics centers as conservative breeding grounds. Trinity College Professor Isaac Kamola, the director of the AAUP’s Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom (CDAF), explains that they want to unleash “naming and shaming and discrediting and undermining the legitimacy” of such programs.
He is quoted as declaring:
“I would really love to see kind of a robust research project on these right-wing centers and individuals—like, naming and shaming and discrediting and undermining the legitimacy. I would love to strategically map who these f—ers are, and figure out what the weaknesses are, and design a research agenda that just goes through them and tries to knock them out.”
The group has also sponsored anti-ICE programs. The AAUP Journal has adopted the same ideological bias.
The move to issue political endorsements is the final severing of the AAUP from even the pretense of neutrality. Previously, Wolfson made no secret of whom he and the organization supported in the last presidential election, denouncing the results of the 2024 election.
As trust in higher education hits new lows, the AAUP is accelerating that decline by doubling down on ideological bias and political activism. In reality, the AAUP represents only a small fraction of university professors but is often viewed as speaking for the teaching academy as a whole.
I have previously written about the similar liberal agenda of the American Bar Association despite plunging membership among lawyers. The ABA now represents just 17 percent of the bar.
The AAUP currently has roughly 50,000 members. There are an estimated 1.5 million university and college professors in the United States. Both the ABA and AAUP have become captive to the most ideological elements of their membership. That agenda has overwhelmed the original apolitical mission of these groups.
The loss of the AAUP as a neutral arbiter for academic freedom is tremendous. As Wolfson acknowledged in our debate, it was once a voice for neutrality, avoiding ideological and political causes. It was central to the articulation of neutrality principles and core academic freedom values. We need such an organization now more than ever.
Instead, the AAUP has become captive to the most radical elements in higher education. That is evidenced by the endorsement of El-Sayed, who has campaigned with virulent anti-Semite Hasan Piker and is associated with Democratic Socialists such as Bernie Sanders.
Notably, Wolfson told Inside Higher Ed that AAUP had to move even further into political advocacy because “Higher ed is under threat and the threats are coming from the government.”
It is a telling remark. Higher education is facing plunging support and revenue. The political bias of universities was recently ranked as the top reason for avoiding higher education, just ahead of economics in a Gallup poll. The response of the AAUP is to become even more overtly biased and political.
The ideological intolerance of the AAUP is evident on campus, where conservatives and libertarians have been virtually purged from most departments.
My debate with Todd Wolfson was cordial and, frankly, I found him personable and engaging. Moreover, he has been open about his political agenda at AAUP. The tragedy is that this once revered institution has become just another rabid, radical element in higher education. Many professors continue to ignore public backlash and are doing untold harm to our institutions by yielding to their own political impulses.
It is not surprising that many professors support radical and anti-Israel candidates such as El-Sayed. Few, if any, professors support Republican candidates after the purging of academic ranks in the last couple of decades. Yale recently secured the distinction of achieving such ideological purity that not a single professor gave money to a Republican candidate or cause.
Yet, there was hope that institutions from universities to the AAUP could preserve at least a pretense of neutrality. Even that, however, is now intolerable as professors again yield to their own ideological impulses at the cost of higher education.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the New York Times best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”
The greatest threat to our democracy is the Israel lobby, the genocidal land grabbers in that apartheid state whom they support, and the traitorous politicians who take their bribes. At this point, Americans feel that anyone who supports Defunding Isreal is CLEARLY the lesser of the evils. Discuss amongst yourselves!
Insane.
A “coming out” party for the communists?
They’ve been in the education, nay, indoctrination unions all along.
Who didn’t know?
The AAUP is a 501(c)(6) and the AAUP Foundation is a 501(c)(3). Are either of them making political contributions? Does their political activism violate their tax exempt status? Inquiring minds want to know.
It is not surprising that Wolfson, an Israel hating, self-loathing Jewish progressive happily endorses a Hamas supporting pseudo- Socialist and fake doctor who owns multiple rental properties and who never practiced as a physician. He reminds me of the Soviet Jewish Bolsheviks who swore allegiance to Stalin up to the second a bullet was put through their skull in the infamous Lubyanka Prison. What is tragic is that there is a plurality of American Jews just like him. Never in history has their been such a self destructive population willing to align itself with those who hate them>
“Higher ed is under threat and the threats are coming from the government.”
Turley calls that a “telling remark.” It can be revealing and completely true at the same time.
It wasn’t just neutrality that was abandoned. They went endorsed a radical far-left anti-American. But university professors have been in that territory for decades. They are now coming out of the closet and admitting it.
Since at least the late 1960s, when I had occasion as an undergraduate student to observe the growing eccentricity in the faculty, both in their outward appearances and the confrontational tone of their lectures, did I not notice that academia was evolving into a complete and disconnected culture?
I suppose that the job of academics is to always push the envelope of reason and knowledge. The flaw in that is that such quests inevitably conflict with and destroy the very fabric of a society that enabled the luxury of this free thought. These new and unconventional ideas would, inevitably, come into conflict with whichever parameters of society that had produced the stability of culture to allow the few on the edge to push farther.
In our instance, we have allowed, not only the boundaries of our society to be stretched, but we have done nothing to stop the evolution of an academic world that would venture out into alien territory so foreign to our basic concepts of what our initial ethos of nation was, that there is almost an inability to converse with those who have created their own realities and values.
I have long compared the fanaticism of the islamic jihadists to the fanaticism we see in the latest products of our academic societies. Neither of these fanatic ideologies are able to consider the ideology of another culture as valid as a strict adherence to their own ideology is tantamount and apostasy is treated with death (either in reality with the islamists in their sharia run nations), or professional, personal, and economic death in the western world. Is there any difference between the treatment of an islamic apostate such as Salman Rushdie and the treatment of family members here who are ostracized by the fanatic woke progressive members of that family?
Since 99% of most faculty are on the radical fringe, there must be public displays of support for the ideology to attest to the righteousness of the cult. Neutrality is not possible with a cult – you are either in or out, and those on the outside are the enemy.
The response to the “you’re either with us or against us” back in the 1960’s was “America: love it or leave it.”
But they didn’t leave then and, while they promise to leave, most do not because they secretly rely on the capitalist system that allows them to live the life that they do. They are like spoiled brat children who hate their parents but live off of them like parasites.
The first remedy that came to my mind seems to be common in the replies this morning. We The People, the common folk, long for a way to have our voices heard. It frustrates us to witness the horror of universities becoming activist indoctrination centers for the most radical, and dare I say it, insane political and social movements. We feel voiceless. We feel that we are without influence or power. But we are neither. We have the ability to starve these abominations financially. We can stop sending our children to them. We can end taxpayer subsidies for them. We can un-elect politicians who support using our tax dollars for them. Starve them all. Make these universities spend their endowments to pay their lunatics. Then we might discover that they have reacquired their hearing, if not their mental acuity and social competence.
YEAH BABY – the Illuminati go full bore whack job! Good thing we have NUT JOBS in academia to balance out the rest of America so we can all see the opinions about supporting terrorists as “freedom fighters” and victims, blah blah dribble from the enlightened ones.
It appears to me that Wolfson and Fauci have a lot in common in that their professional existence thrives on notoriety, fame and accolades and not in the interest of academia or science and there are many others who follow in their footsteps. Their contrived debates are one sided and not on a foundation of considering other points of view, but only a pursued on how to disseminate their one-sided views which is so obvious as a result of purging the teaching academy of conservatives and libertarians. Open and honest debate is the key and an essential societal element for growth and understanding. For instance, we all experienced the multitude of serious and long-lasting tolls that transpired as a result squelching the COVID debate.
End all Federal Aid to cities, states, non-profits and colleges
Then you will find out how these people are funded
NY gets twice the Federal Aid per person as FL
The WORSE Democrats make it, the MORE money they get!
BREAK THEM!
Tax all non-profits where anyone gets $100k+of benefit
Hospitals with $1 Million Exec
Charities with $1 Million Exec
Colleges with $10 Million Coaches
Stop fund these liberals!
end all Federal Aid and loan backing for colleges
Outlaw Public Unions
BREAK DEMOCRATS!
Professor, please stop calling university education “higher education.” A more accurate term would be “higher indoctrination.” American universities are becoming more and more influenced by CCP front groups as the CCP play their long game of disrupting American society and establishing Marxist-Leninist-Mao tse tung-Xi Jinping Thought in “higher education.” Useful idiots like Todd Wolfson are happy to do this. 150 years ago Dostoyevsky wrote in “The Idiot” about Russian liberalism, which is indistinguishable today from the destructive “liberals” in this country. The Left never changes.
Another good reason that “higher education” should not be taxpayer funded. Parents should not even consider it for their children! It is the basis for destroying our country and way of life.
As Hobbes wrote somewhere, fear is the dominant emotion in politics and perhaps in life. If so, what is the fear of these intolerant academics? It is the inkling that their socialist and communist views cannot stand up to critical examination. So, it necessary for them to silence criticism before it has the chance to arise.
edwardmahl,
You are correct.
Their ideas cannot stand up to critical examination. That is why they accuse anyone who does question their ideas as “racist.” The goal is to shut them up. And as we saw with Charlie Kirk, when they could not shut him up, they killed him.
“. . . what is the fear of these intolerant academics?”
Being ignored at academic cocktail parties.
“. . . fear is the dominant emotion . . .”
Fear of death (the Leviathan). To alleviate that fear, Hobbes argues, man must surrender his rights, life, and worldly possessions to an omnipotent government.
His is the blueprint for those mini-tyrants today who spread fear (of Covid, “fascism,” “oligarchs”) to sate their lust for power and for control over an individual’s life.
Perhaps these individuals would be even more in the fringe if critical thinking was taught in the lower grades. Learning how to analyze a situation and theory is critical to individual survival as well as economic survival.
The problem is that the teachers unions would not do or allow it to happen. We must push at our local level to teach this.
Rcs
I’m of the same mind, cognitive logical thought has to be learned. I do believe it to be an inherent thing that one automatically evolves into, although some minds seem more predisposed towards it than others. I believe that it all track backs to how one is wired, left or right lobe control of the brain. I believe this to be the defining factor in whether a person ia a reactionary or proactive type person, as well as their susceptibility to following the herd. IMO technological advances and use of computers and calculators in our schools have led to a decrease in our youth being able to understand advanced concepts which would tend towards the ability for abstract thinking, yet still capable of deriving the correct answers for a passing grade.
I believe the UnaBomber was 100% correct in his beliefs regarding technological advancement. He was crazy and a murderer, but he was right.
Where are the parents? Are they too stupid to do this for their own children?
They’re are probably both too busy working to try to achieve the American dream. I believe only 10% of the working class ever made it to the 100K salary range. Taxes, fees, healthcare, childcare, energy and food costs don’t make for parents to have enough time and wherewithal to assure their children are getting a decent education. I can’t imagine trying to raise children on a $40k/yr income, but people do. They have nothing but don’t like it and become envious of those that do, ergo Democratic Socialists.
They trusted the system, they were wrong, now they want what you worked for.
Higher ed is an oxymoron. Decades ago ,1978, when I was graduated from college I had very liberal professors. We agreed on little. But those professors were educators. While not agreeing with my views, they encouraged me to continue thinking and believing in my ideas. Sadly men an women like that are gone from most colleges and universities.
I graduated in 76 with a BS in Political Science. I acquired my skepticism of government from my liberal professors. A few years later I learned I was conservative from Democrats who I concluded thought I was stupid enough to believe that transferring capital to government would grow the economy. I guess I’m an example of unintended consequences.
I graduated HS in 70, went to Paris Island for continuing education and then to SE Asia where I got shot, blown up and died fighting communism.
Now they are here…
In college, I had generally conservative professors, believe it or not. I was liberal at the time and politely challenged their thinking, and they graciously encouraged my challenges. After I left college, I continued to read and think about the issues and ultimately concluded conservatives were right (that’s a long story by itself). Everything that has happened in the subsequent 40 years has only confirmed my change of heart.
I was lucky in that my professors didn’t cancel me and my classmates didn’t dox and harass me. I was lucky in that there were no deans of ideological purity prowling the halls rooting out apostates like me. I despise that kind of thought policing.
The left is morally corrupt and getting worse every day.
SPENDING IS THE GAME.
Currently, Wolfson is spending down the good name of the AAUP to advance his leftist agenda.
Currently, the DSA is spending down the reputation of the Democratic Party to advance socialism.
Currently, Democrats favor taxation, or taxing the rich, for votes in whatever election is coming up.
Currently, many corporations buy a failing company with a good name and exploit the name to profit by selling cheap stuff.
Currently, unions bargain for more wages to sustain themselves and workers, while companies claim giving more makes them less competitive to foreign competition.
Currently, university faculty purge conservative voices because they know they are right to do so.
SPENDING IS THE GAME. You can spend reputation, money, promises, expertise, righteousness, and anything having value to the population. By and by, their accounts are drained to zero.
The AAUP has brought back the late Middle Ages contest between Town and Gown, which pitted the educators and educated against the peasantry. Only this time the ideology and sociology of the players is reversed. The American public, the wealthiest and most comfortable group in human history, is rapidly souring on the economically and societally illiterate self-styled elites of academia. Israel, an example of what liberal democracy can do to achieve success anywhere in the world is somehow considered an enemy by the fools dominating the AAUP who believe that the consistent failure of middle-eastern ethnic group to achieve economic and societal success must be supported as an example of something that the average American no longer believes, which is that victimhood and failure are to be admired.
There is no less tolerant group than the Fascist left. They demand complete and total ideological conformity in everything, to a degree that would make Goebbels blush.
“There is no less tolerant group than the Fascist left. They demand complete and total ideological conformity in everything, to a degree that would make Goebbels blush.”
For your statement to be true, this group must be composed of the Fascist left.