I applaud Ilya Shapiro and Josh Blackman’s attention to academic freedom and their recognition that threats to it ultimately imperil the broader principles of liberty that make open inquiry possible, as outlined in their Feb. 2 online op-ed, “College deans aren’t protected by academic freedom.”
The authors were also correct that senior administrative positions are not protected by academic freedom in the same way as faculty roles, a fact that every college president feels acutely. And they are right that colleges and universities can and should do more to ensure that students feel free to voice dissenting views and challenge orthodoxy as part of a rigorous education.
A college that stifles voices from one side of the political spectrum — where conservative scholars and students are denied opportunities or made to feel that their perspectives are unwelcome — cannot meaningfully advance knowledge.
But the remedy for perceived ideological imbalance on campus is not political litmus tests in hiring, whether for faculty or administrative positions. The fix is also not prohibitions on certain topics in the classroom or areas of research. To put it simply: The response to illiberalism on campus cannot be more illiberalism.
The only way to ensure diversity of thought on our campuses is to strengthen our commitments to full intellectual freedom and open inquiry, not to abandon them when they feel inconvenient.
Intellectual freedom is worth defending precisely because it protects the right to challenge the dominance of any single way of thinking, wherever it comes from. That principle must apply equally to those who dissent from orthodoxies in the academy and to those who challenge the status quo beyond the campus gates.
Michael A. Elliott, Amherst, Massachusetts
The writer is president of Amherst College.
Academic freedom and the First Amendment are not the same thing. Even when it cannot be protected by a court, academic freedom allows academics to explore the bounds of human knowledge without having to look over their shoulder to see if curiosity will get them fired. The Emily Suski controversy that Ilya Shapiro and Josh Blackman downplayed will make academics at public universities wonder: What will I write about that will trigger a backlash from the state legislature and get me fired?
I am a former chief counsel of the Senate Republican Policy Committee. I have a Republican pedigree a mile long. But academic freedom is supposed to be about something deeper than red vs. blue tribalism. Shapiro, Blackman and conservative scholars writ large should rally to the side of academic freedom, not justify its suppression.
Jack Thorlin, Fayetteville, Arkansas
The writer is an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas School of Law.
Ilya Shapiro and Josh Blackman wrote that the speech of academic deans is legitimately controlled by a college or university, but Emily Suski’s speech occurred when she was a professor, before she was hired as a dean. If a professor faces the prospect that their protected speech may be used against them should they seek an administrative position — as apparently happened to Suski — this may well discourage them from participating in the robust exchange of ideas that academic freedom is intended to protect.
Howard Kallem, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
The writer is a former director of Title IX compliance at Duke University.
IRS woes
Regarding Michelle Singletary’s Feb. 4 column, “Will the IRS be disorganized? Three issues to watch.”:
My personal frustrations with the IRS are many, but I find it hard to be upset with any IRS employee I’ve been able to talk with, difficult as it’s been getting ahold of a human at the IRS. When I have been successful, the IRS employees have been helpful and professional.
I learned that one return I filed in paper form was incorrectly reentered by hand. The lack of optical character scanners is ridiculous. What a waste of manpower. Another error, in the crediting of an estimated quarterly payment, was finally resolved after about a year, but at least the IRS sent me regular updates on the issue through the mail. Maybe a good performance metric would be to calculate how many millions of those letters the IRS mails every quarter.
After at least three successful contacts with an IRS employee, I’ve been reassured that they are still working on my 2024 return and I will eventually receive my tax refund. I’ve been told the IRS pays 7 percent interest if there is a delay of more than 45 days, so maybe there will be a silver lining to my frustrations.
Robert Veale, Elizabeth City, North Carolina
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