BEN SASSE: “The Moral Decline of Elite Universities”

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We like to forward on opinion pieces that we think capture important ways of viewing a topic. On Thursday, University of Florida President Ben Sasse authored a piece in The Atlantic titled, “The Moral Decline of Elite Universities.”

It reminded us of a speech Senate Leader Phil Berger delivered in 2021, which you can find here.

Whether you agree or disagree with what Sasse has to say, we think he’s brilliant and we enjoyed hosting him as our keynote speaker at an event last year.

Below are excerpts. You can read the piece in its entirety, without a paywall, by clicking here.

The Moral Decline of Elite Universities

Thirty years from now, Americans will likely recall a witness table of presidents—representing not top corporations in one single sector, but the nation’s most powerful educational institutions—refusing to speak plainly, defiantly rejecting any sense that they are part of a “we,” and exhibiting smug moralistic certainty even as they embraced bizarrely immoral positions about anti-Semitism and genocide…

…Along with so much of higher education, especially outside the hardest of sciences, they have become acolytes of a shallow new theology called “intersectionality.” This is neither a passing fad nor something that normies can roll our eyes at and ignore. As Andrew Sullivan presciently predicted a mere six years ago, the tenets of this all-encompassing ideology have quickly spilled beyond trendy humanities departments at top-30 universities, and its self-appointed priestly class tried tirelessly to enforce its ideology…

…The university presidents who testified before Congress were not wrong that the line beyond protected speech is action—this is the well-established American tradition. But having so selectively applied that standard in the institutions they wield, they forfeited any claim to be motivated by protecting speech; they are simply in the business of choosing allies and outcasts based on a dogma of victimology. Harvard’s freshman orientation specifically instructs students that failing to adhere to new dogmatic linguistic constructions that didn’t exist a few years ago is abuse, and students anticipate consequences.

These academic leaders did not arrive at this dogma of victimology recently. They built their careers on it, funded it, celebrated it openly. When the rape of Israeli women cannot be unequivocally condemned because of their status as Jews, when calls for genocide require additional “context,” it is clear that many of country’s putatively best minds are unable to make basic moral judgments…

…Harvard, Princeton, and Yale were originally founded as seminaries. They are seminaries once again. The doctrine they embrace is both insecure and oppressive in its prohibition of insiders and outsiders from pursuing free inquiry. Rather than wrestle with hard questions about human dignity, individual agency, and speech, many in the Ivy League seem poised to double down on fanaticism…

…We cannot heal these declining institutions simply by recalculating the grid so that Jewish people are moved from the “powerful” square to a “powerless” slot. The problem is the tyranny of the power grid itself, and its disinterest in both ideas and universal human dignity.

Changing one president here or there isn’t enough. Intersectionality is a religious cult that’s dominated higher education for nearly a decade with the shallow but certain idea that power structures are everything, the Neanderthal view that blunt force trumps human dignity…

…We ought to dispense with the laughably absurd notion that these university presidents are somehow steadfast champions of free speech. Where was this commitment when MIT canceled a speech from a climate scientist who voiced opposition to affirmative action? Where was this obligation when a lecturer said she felt pushed out of Harvard for suggesting that sex is a biological fact? Where was this duty when Penn tried to fire a law-school professor who made odious comments about minority groups and immigration policy? These elite institutions make the rules up as they go and stack the deck against disfavored groups. Ask conservative students how many loopholes they have to jump through to reserve spaces or invite speakers. Ask the students who report holding back their views in class or paper-topic selection for fear of facing consequences. For that matter, ask anyone who has been paying attention for the past 20 years. These universities aren’t doggedly committed to free speech; they’re desperately trying to find some cover. The expensive public-relations firms they’ve hired for crisis management are grasping at straws…

…Higher education is facing a crisis of public trust. The simple fact of the matter is, fewer and fewer Americans believe that universities are committed to the pursuit of truth. Understanding why isn’t hard at a time when elite institutions make excuses for illiberal mobs. The perception that ideologues and fanatics are running the show on campus is, sadly, based in reality. The public sees it. Donors see it. Boards see it. Alumni see it…

…Those of us—left, right, or center—who value human dignity, pluralism, and genuine progress and who want to make sure that we pass these blessings to the next generation cannot abandon institutions to post-liberals on the left who would destroy them from within or post-liberals on the right who would tear them to the ground. At our best, the academy promotes human flourishing in ways that no other sector can. If we commit ourselves to the work of creating, discovering, and serving—not enforcing impersonal hierarchies of power or stifling inquiry—we’ll rebuild public trust.

Those of us called to higher education—members of boards, presidents, administrators, professors, and donors—owe it to future generations to build something better.