Bluesky

Last week while I was observing Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement and reflection, I received word of the federal government’s plans for a “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.” What an opportunity for higher education to be forgiven for our past transgressions and to mend our ways—just by joining a Loyalty Club that promises preferential treatment!

Although I have not yet been asked by the esteemed Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to promise that my university shares the glorious values of the current administration, I eagerly await the chance to express my fidelity in exchange for special consideration from funding agencies. May Mailman, President Trump’s higher-ed point person, is giving us the opportunity to atone for any work we may have done in cultivating belonging on diverse campuses and to show that we are, in her words, “good actors.”

As Secretary McMahon emphasized in her address at Hillsdale College earlier this fall: “America’s place on the world stage also depends on cultivating civic leaders—some would call them ‘elites’—from among our best and brightest.” Her call for allegiance to the project of American greatness strikes a chord in me, and, I am confident, in many other university leaders in search of greatness (and funding).

Given my own training, which some would call elite, I thought back to a parallel text from German history, the Professors’ Oath of 1933:

Peace, work, freedom and honor are the most sacred goods of each nation of peoples with each other. Consciousness of our power and recovered unity, our sincere will to serve unreservedly the cause of peace inside and outside our nation, the deep conviction of our tasks in the reconstruction of the Reich, and our determination to do nothing that is not compatible with our honor and that of our Fatherland, make us, in this grave hour submit to you, Herr Reichskanzler, this vow of our most faithful allegiance.

Secretary McMahon reminded us in her Hillsdale Address that a devotion to Truth is the foundation of greatness, and the new opportunity to join the government’s Loyalty Club is another way we express devotion. I can’t help but be reminded of Martin Heidegger’s expression of fidelity to the Nation and to Truth: “The nation is winning back the truth of its will to existence, for truth is the revelation of that which makes a people confident, lucid, and strong in its actions and knowledge. The genuine will to know arises from such truth.”

As the Compact puts it: “Truth-seeking is a core function of institutions of higher education…. Fulfilling this mission requires maintaining a vibrant marketplace of ideas where different views can be explored, debated, and challenged.” The government will ensure that the market will be fair by protecting academic freedom for some, and by protecting conservative ideas in particular. “Signatories commit themselves to revising governance structures as necessary to create such an environment, including but not limited to transforming or abolishing institutional units that purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas.”

We should be grateful that the government will monitor our viewpoints, insisting that there is a “broad spectrum of viewpoints not just in the university as a whole, but within every field, department, school, and teaching unit.” Of course, as university presidents are fond of saying, the administration will just tell us how to think not what to think.

American history offers us examples of how this might work. In the decade or so after the end of World War II, higher-education leaders across the country collaborated with Senator Joseph McCarthy’s effort to rid the land of communists. For example, the president of the University of California, Robert Sproul, underscored that there was no constitutional right to a job, and if faculty wanted to exercise free speech by aligning with America’s enemies, then they would be fired. If you wanted to be paid to teach, you signed a loyalty oath. Today, as in so many other areas of life, the government is telling us that if you want preferential funding treatment, you embrace the Compact and join the Loyalty Club.

The secretary of education has reminded us that while being paragons of institutional neutrality, “a college president should engage in the national discourse and chart a unique course for the ship he or she steers through complicated intellectual waters.” The Compact goes even further, requiring “policies that all university employees, in their capacity as university representatives, will abstain from actions or speech relating to societal and political events except in cases in which external events have a direct impact upon the university.”

As long as they’re steering by the coordinates provided by the White House, everyone can chart their unique course as we make our way to Truth!

Alas, some so-called “leaders” will resist the enticements of conformity. The heads of George Mason, Princeton, Dartmouth, Mount Holyoke, Bard, Delta College, Trinity College (DC), like many faculty and alumni groups, will probably object to the attempt to control institutions that have long thrived by being autonomous. The government, though, is confident that many more college presidents and other academic collaborators will be thrilled to join in the lucrative compact to underscore, as Secretary McMahon put it, that “America is a symbol of hope and liberty to the world.

Our institutions must prepare students to carry that mantle, to lead with clarity and conviction, and to show the world what a free society can achieve.” In the words of the Compact, the government of our free society will now shower “multiple positive benefits” and “substantial and meaningful federal grants” to schools that sign on to be “pursuing federal priorities with vigor.”

Those who resist the new Gleichschaltung will argue that faculty and students should never have to sacrifice their freedom and autonomy to align with the leader in the White House. They will claim that American universities have attracted students from around the world when we have protected free speech and the ability to teach and conduct research without political interference.

Those who reject the Compact will note that there are many things we can improve in higher education, but rewards clubs and loyalty oaths will only undermine the benefits of learning through practicing freedom. They should be aware that the letter announcing the Compact notes that an agreement will be enforced not by the Department of Education but by the Department of Justice.