Abstract

The troves of academe

This article presents the author's views on the issue of intellectual and moral bankruptcy. William Simon, president of the John M. Olin Foundation, is upset because of this trend and he wrote in the Moonie-owned Washington Times regarding it. He complained that the decision taken by Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut to return a U.S. $20 million "gift" from alumnus Lee Bass arose from a wider sickness that is infecting institutions of higher learning across the country. Simon's essay glided gracefully over Bass's demand to oversee faculty appointments made with his money. The problem, rather, is a pervasive "hostility toward Western civilization, the contempt for donors and standards of honesty in dealing with them, and the practice of invoking the sacred cow of academic freedom as a cover for hypocrisy and irresponsibility.