A Higher-Ed Renaissance?

The past five years have been tumultuous ones for elite higher education. Campuses have been rocked by plagiarism scandals, ugly and violent protests, and revelations about admissions discrimination that went on under the guise of affirmative action. Meanwhile, reformers are trying out new approaches, from civics institutes to more robust legislative oversight of public universities to brand-new private institutions. How pivotal will these years turn out to be? And what strategies are most likely to revive the mission of the university? Law & Liberty senior writer James Hankins has hope for a higher-ed renaissance. 

Related Links:
James Hankins, “Learning Civics from History“
James Hankins, “Can Harvard Win Back America’s Respect?“
James Hankins, “Hope for Harvard?“
James Hankins, “A Centrist Strategy for Higher Education Reform“
James Hankins, “Training for the Contemplative Life“

Liberty Fund is a private, non-partisan, educational foundation. The views expressed in its podcasts are the individual’s own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Liberty Fund.

Transcript

James Patterson:

Welcome to the Law & Liberty Podcast. I’m your host, James Patterson. Law & Liberty is an online magazine featuring serious commentary on law, policy, books, and culture, and formed by a commitment to a society of free and responsible people living under the rule of law. Law & Liberty and this podcast are published by Liberty Fund.

John Grove:

Welcome to the Law & Liberty Podcast. I’m John Grove, the editor of Law & Liberty, filling in for our regular host, James Patterson. Today I am pleased to be joined by a senior writer at Law & Liberty, Professor James Hankins. Professor Hankins is a professor of History at Harvard University, and his most recent books include Virtue Politics: Soulcraft and Statecraft in Renaissance Italy and Political Meritocracy in Renaissance Italy. Professor Hankins has written many, many phenomenal pieces for Law & Liberty and elsewhere on higher education. And today we are going to talk about some of the themes that have cut across those various essays and book reviews that he’s written about his own institution of Harvard and about broader trends in higher education generally. So Jim, thanks so much for joining us.

James Hankins:

It’s a great pleasure to join you, John.

John Grove:

So I thought we would start with just the past year and a half, which has seemed really tumultuous for higher education, especially what we call elite higher education, the Ivy League, and similar sorts of institutions. So we’ve had the Students for Fair Admissions decision, which forbids race-based admissions policies. We’ve had plagiarism scandals including with presidents of major institutions. We’ve had the occupation of campuses by pro-Palestine protesters, and many of those have turned violent and have revealed some pretty intense anti-Semitism. We’ve had disastrous congressional testimony by a lot of the Ivy League presidents that were talking about these protests and the institutional response to the October 7th attacks. That then in turn led to a wave of resignations. And then perhaps a little bit more hopefully, we have seen a number of institutions, including Harvard, seem to take a turn toward what we call institutional neutrality, sayin