Experience Stern | Faculty & Research

For generations, colleges and universities have been a crown jewel of American democracy. More than 18 million students are currently enrolled in more than 3,500 degree-granting post-secondary institutions. What draws so many to U.S. campuses, including more than one million international students, is an educational model that, at its best, offers a learner-centered approach to teaching and research that prioritizes excellence and rigor, while at the same time encouraging innovation, creativity, and interactive engagement. Over many decades, a diploma from a U.S. college or university has opened the door to opportunities for success in business, the arts, medicine and science, the military, journalism, and careers in the public service.

Today, this model is being tested as never before by the federal government, which is seeking to impose government controls over student admissions, faculty appointments, and what is taught in the classroom. Earlier this month, the administration rolled out a 10-point “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” its latest effort to exert unprecedented control of core university functions, a step that will almost certainly undermine academic freedom. An administration that was elected to reduce government interference and unnecessary regulation is seeking to create a new regulatory regime where none is welcomed or warranted. The administration sent the compact to nine schools, seeking their acquiescence to government regulation. Already seven of those schools— the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brown University, Dartmouth College, the University of Virginia, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California and the University of Arizona—have rejected this ill-advised initiative. Other schools need to follow their lead.

The compact outlines a series of requirements universities must meet to receive preferential treatment on federal funding. Conditions include a ban on considering race or sex in admissions, sanctions against departments seen as hostile to conservative ideas, a commitment to institutional neutrality, a five-year tuition freeze, and required standardized tests such as the SAT and ACT.

Read the full Forbes article.
___
Michael Posner is the Jerome Kohlberg Professor of Ethics and Finance, Professor of Business and Society and Director of the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights.