HOW HOPELESS IS HIGHER EDUCATION?

Just when you thought the house organ for all wokeness, all the time, in higher education, couldn't get any sillier, along comes Josh Moody to fret, "Universities are making exceptions to institutional neutrality policies to issue statements on Charlie Kirk’s death as some take aggressive action against some faculty remarks."

He's referring to the practice of senior deans, provosts, chancellors, and the like holding themselves forth as public intellectuals in ways that besmirch their offices.  "I hold the position that university officials be circumspect in issuing statements about Matters of Public Import.  At the time, I noted, 'Too often, those statements make the professional protest communities within the university comfortable with their prejudices.'"

Josh-o, though, isn't joshing about what some university officials are doing.

Any college presidents began to refrain from statements on current events in the aftermath of the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks by Hamas and Israel’s response, which has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians and widespread campus protests.

Such statements were often sharply criticized by university communities for failing to adequately condemn Hamas as terrorists, or to recognize the suffering of the Palestinian people—or both—prompting multiple presidents to apologize for their remarks and/or refrain from future comments.

Multiple universities adopted institutional neutrality policies amid the fallout, essentially agreeing to refrain from making statements on political matters and to show more restraint, generally, on issuing statements on current events.

But following the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk at an event at Utah Valley University last week, statements are flowing as institutions and presidents denounce political violence, with some leaders arguing this moment requires an exception to institutional neutrality.

The "But ..." in that passage is more pathetic than the equivocation of "I condemn the murder of Brian Thompson, but we need a national conversation about health care costs."  Wouldn't university administrators, from the chancellor to the deputy assistant deanlet for climbing walls, agree with the proposition that a university is a place to debate and discuss ideas, not to shoot people for holding them?  You'd think a campus visitor shot down on the quad is something that could directly affect any university.

Instead, Josh invokes a popular Donk talking point.

The University of Wyoming adopted institutional neutrality in late 2023.

But last week, President Ed Seidel released a statement “expressing disgust, outrage and sadness at this apparent politically motivated attack” and noted his sympathy for Kirk’s family.

“In the midst of this tragedy, it is important that we reaffirm the right of all to express their views freely, especially on college campuses, as Mr. Kirk did recently at UW. Political violence is never warranted, and we reaffirm our commitment to freedom of expression and respectful discourse on our campus—and the institutional neutrality that is needed to support it,” he wrote.

Wyoming also held a moment of silence for Kirk before its football game on Saturday.

Seidel has not issued remarks on other incidents of political violence, such as the June murder of Melissa Hortman, the former Democratic speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives, along with her husband. Minnesota governor Tim Walz and others condemned the act as a political assassination.

The palace guard media have turned themselves inside out comparing Our President's relatively standard reaction to those Minnesota murders with his vigor in the wake of the death of a man who made major in-kind contributions to his campaign.  As far as I know, the Wyoming chapter of Young Democrats have not expressed any fear of being able to set up tables or hold meetings on campus.  The Turning Point chapter might be a different matter.

University of Wyoming spokesperson Chad Baldwin told Inside Higher Ed by email that the killing of Kirk, who spoke at UW in April, prompted a statement due to several factors, including that Turning Point USA—the student organization Kirk founded—has an active chapter at UW.

“A statement was made for this case and not others for reasons that include: proximity to us; the fact that Mr. Kirk had been here recently; the impact on members of a recognized student organization on our campus; and the fact that the killing took place on a college campus,” Baldwin wrote.

You'd think that somebody claiming to understand higher education would, upon receipt of that message, think better of his column and write about something else.  But no, he has to slag on Middlebury as well.

Middlebury College president Ian Baucom also issued a statement following Kirk’s death in which he condemned his killing as “an evil act” and pledged to defend academic freedom.

“Most simply put: Middlebury is—and always will be—for academic freedom,” Baucom wrote last week. “We are for the academic freedom of everyone. We cannot thrive without that commitment, nor can our democracy. Those are simple truths to state. They take all our conviction and hard work to live. In these difficult days, let’s commit to living them together.”

Nowhere in his pathetic excuse of a column does he acknowledge that Middlebury, one of those finishing schools for future unelected bureaucrats and hedge fund managers, had its own assault on academic freedom a few years ago, when the Guardians of Correct Thought injured a professor who was escorting Charles Murray.  Perhaps an assault on academic freedom in Utah is an opportunity to remind the current crop of students that universities exist to evaluate ideas, not to suppress them.

With friends like Josh Moody, higher education might be beyond help.