Political Interference in Higher Ed: Escalations, Attacks, and the Billionaires Behind It

As violent, militarized responses to protests on campuses across the country continue,  in this episode we look at how political interference in higher education has expanded in dangerous ways. We discuss how the right (and increasingly the center) have demonized higher education as a public good, and examine the historical origins of the current onslaught of political interference in higher ed.

Isaac Kamola, an associate profes­sor of political science at Trinity College in Connecticut guests. He is the director of the AAUP’s newly established Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom, which will  examine and confront the recent surge of political and ideological attacks on American higher education. It was established by the AAUP with funding from the Mellon Foundation.  Jennifer Ruth,  a professor and associate dean at Portland State University also guests. She is the coauthor, with Michael Bérubé, of It’s Not Free Speech: Race, Democracy, and the Future of Academic Freedom and coeditor, with Valerie C. Johnson and Ellen Schrecker, of the forthcoming The Right to Learn: Resisting the Right-Wing Attack on Academic Freedom.

Links:

• "Subnational Authoritarianism and the Campaign to Control Higher Education," Jennifer Ruth, Academe
• Will Academic Freedom and Campus Free Speech Survive? Inside Higher Ed
• In Defense of the Right to Free Speech and Peaceful Protest on University Campuses, AAUP statement