On July 15, a group of conservatives active in higher education issued a reform agenda for higher education. Unlike the prior documents that were directed toward universities, such as the Princeton Principles or the Heterodox Academy Plan, the group addressed their specific recommendations to President Trump for his executive action. The proposal is to draft a standard set of conditions that would be imposed on all future federal research grants or other contracts with universities.
The announcement came in an op-ed published by Christopher Rufo in the Front Page online magazine.
Public Survey Data
Rufo’s argument is based upon a recent public opinion survey of 2,000 registered voters. The survey found, “Only one in five (20%) registered voters say they have a “great deal” of trust in America’s public colleges and universities to act in the best interests of the public. Almost four in ten say they have “not much” trust (23%) or no trust at all (14%) in public colleges and universities, while 58% say they have a great deal (20%) or some trust (38%).
“Private Ivy League colleges and universities inspire even less confidence. Only 15% of registered voters say they have a great deal of trust in these institutions, while three in ten (31%) have some trust. 46% overall say they have not much (25%) or no trust at all (21%).”
Rufo reports:
“Voters have grown distrustful of the universities and see these reforms, which they support by margins ranging from 3:1 to 9:1, as common sense. For example, 66 percent say that universities must provide a real forum for free speech, and 67 percent agree that schools should expel students who try to squash civil discussion by disrupting events, occupying buildings, and calling for violence. Voters overwhelmingly support students’ right to protest, but have little tolerance for activism that seeks to intimidate others.
“Even the principle that has sparked the most controversy—abolishing DEI and adopting a policy of color-blind equality—has majority or plurality support from Republicans, Democrats, whites, blacks, Hispanics, and Asians. Only 20 percent of voters say that race, gender, or ethnicity should be taken into account when universities are choosing which students to admit or teachers to hire; 71 percent say that all potential university students should be treated equally, regardless of gender or skin color.”
Rufo notes that the American public has been generous to universities, but it is time for universities to honor their side of the bargain by providing unbiased instruction and research. Rufo concludes that the new statement’s “deepest purpose is to remind the public that there is a compact between the citizen and the university, and that we all have a common interest in seeing the universities succeed.”
Statement of Concerns
The Statement claims that universities have become too ideological and have been captured by far-left political activists. “Beginning with the George Floyd riots and culminating in the celebration of the Hamas terror campaign, the institutions of higher education finally ripped off the mask and revealed their animating spirit: racialism, ideology, chaos. The current state of affairs is untenable.”
The Statement includes specific bullet points covering: pushing ideology rather than pursuing truth; engaging in partisan activism; employing large DEI bureaucracies that engage in racial discrimination; using “corrupted faculty hiring practices”; degrading “the liberal arts with reductive ideologies”; and dividing America into the “oppressor” and the “oppressed.”
The Statement claims the crisis has reached the point of needed the government to step in to mandate reforms: “During the Founding era, schools of higher education were established by government charter and written into the law, which stipulated that, in exchange for public support, they had a duty to advance the public good and, if they were to stray from that mission, the people retained the right to intervene.”
Request for Presidential Actions
Based upon these concerns, the Statement asked the President to draft a new compact between the American public and its universities and to make compliance with the compact a new condition of every federal grant or contract. Before this, Congress would enact laws, such as the Civil Rights Laws, condition grants and contracts upon compliance with those laws, and then impose more specific remedies on individual universities upon the showing of an actual violation. The Statement is advocating a more generic, nationwide approach to impose reforms.
The specific reforms proposed to be mandated are:
- Rigorous standards of academic conduct, controls for academic fraud, and merit-based decision-making throughout the enterprise.
- Institutional neutrality.
- Adhere to the principle of color-blind equality by abolishing DEI bureaucracies, disbanding racially segregated programs, and terminating race-based discrimination in admissions, hiring, promotions, and contracting.
- Freedom of speech, including protecting students and faculty who dissent from consensus views.
- Highest standard of civil discourse, enforced by an on-campus discipline system.
The Statement concludes, “Despite the challenges, we refuse to abandon the hope that America’s universities can once again be those bright lights, pursuing truth, sustaining our highest traditions, and educating the future guardians of our republic.”
Some note that the Statement does not address the First Amendment implications for the government imposing such specific requirements on universities or the enforcement mechanisms the federal government could establish. Some critics argue that the Statement implies university’s claims to academic freedom should be set aside due to perceived ideological bias.
The Statement does not address the President’s power to implement this change without any further Congressional action.
The Statement was signed by 43 prominent conservatives including: Christopher Rufo; Rep. Virginia Foxx, Chair of the House Rules Committee; Jordan Peterson, University of Toronto; Gad Saad MS PhD ‘94, Concordia University; Ben Shapiro, Daily Wire; Rich Lowry, National Review; Lee Jussim, Rutgers University; Alex Priou, University of Austin; Peter Boghossian, University of Austin; Pavlos Papadopoulos, Wyoming Catholic College; Pedro Domingos, University of Washington; Dan Bonevac, University of Texas; Luciano de Castro, University of Iowa; Brandon Warmke, University of Florida; Bryan Caplan, George Mason University; Adam Kolasinski, Texas A&M University; and Joshua Katz, American Enterprise Institute.
