Did The Profs Cry Uncle - Road to the Middle Class

ALL OF A SUDDEN, according to David Horowitz, it seems that the academic establishment has called for a peace process in the academic freedom wars. For the last couple of years Horowitz has been campaigning for universities to adopt his Academic Bill of Rights, a manifesto “that would foster intellectual diversity, fairness and equity in higher education.” For his pains, Horowitz has been “compared to McCarthyites, Maoists, and Orwellian thought police by some of [his] overheated opponents.” But now

The American Council on Education and a coalition of 22 college and university associations, including the American Association of University Professors (who had declared our bill a �grave threat to academic freedom�) have issued a statement that endorses the central principles of our bill and represents a great step forward in the academic freedom struggle.

Is it real, or is it Memorex? Only time will tell, of course. But the safest thing to do is follow the money. Universities are non-profit entities that collect money from students, foundations, corporations, alumni, and government and then spend it. The ideal situation for a university administration is for happy contributors to give money without strings attached so that the university can spend the money as it thinks fit. Of course, this ideal situation never obtains. The university is always under pressure from a variety of special interests that each applies pressure to the university to spend money in a way that benefits the interest. The job of the university administrator is to judge where the sweet spot lies that will maximize contributions with the minimum of pain. But the bottom line is: he or she will do whatever it takes to keep the money flowing.

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Christopher Chantrill blogs at www.roadtothemiddleclass.com. His Road to the Middle Class is forthcoming.