And, perhaps most serious, “an unmistakable pulse of dogma has emerged on campus.” Although Daniels does not think there is a full-blown speech crisis on campus, he does believe that something is horribly wrong, according to him. A 2020 Knight Foundation SurveyOf course, 63 percent of college students feel that “their campus environment prevents some people from saying things they believe because others might find them offensive.”
It’s hard to argue with Daniels’ solutions. Finally, once and for all, the entry into the legacy. Establish “Need for Democracy” in the school curriculum. Increasing openness in science and improving the peer-review process. Curb self-isolation in university housing. Create space for engagement and promote the practices of rational dissent and energetic debate.
All necessary proposals – and even more necessary in the age of right-wing populism and left-wing liberalism. Still, I would add two items to Daniels’ list of what democracy owes to universities.
The first is an unquestioned and unrequited commitment to intellectual excellence. Dorian Abbott made a comment from a colleague calling for action that “if you’re only hiring the best people, you’re part of the problem.” But if universities are not putting excellence above every other consideration, they are not helping democracy. they are getting weak This by contributing to the democratic tendency towards collective thought and the mediocrity that comes from trying to please the majority.
The second is courage. Most university administrators, I suspect, would happily subscribe on paper to principles like free expression. Their problem, as in Abraham Lincoln’s illustration of a runaway soldier, is not with their intentions. “I have a heart as brave as Julius Caesar,” says Lincoln’s soldier, “but, somehow, whenever danger comes, my timid feet will run away with it.” Right now we have an epidemic of cowardly feet.
Courage is not a virtue that is easily taught, especially in universities, but sometimes it can be modeled. After Abbott’s talks at MIT were cancelled, conservative Princeton professor Robert George offered to host the lecture instead; is scheduled For October 21 on Zoom.
Courage begins with cancellation. Wisdom, thanks to books like Daniels’s, could then have wings.