Stuck in the Middle (of Academia)

I ve been teaching college for 25 years. I love my job, and I ll probably die doing it. But the challenges I ve seen for academia in the last few years are the worst I can remember. From the Right, politicians are attempting to diminish academic freedom, suppress speech, and weaken tenure. From the Left, implausible theories are enforced like sacred dogma by zealous activists, feckless administrators, and online mobs, creating a different, but equally dangerous attack on academic freedom. Public confidence in universities is dropping, as are enrollments. How bad is it for us professors, working in academia?

As with many issues: It s complicated. Academia is neither the quasi-communist boot camp of indoctrination feared by some on the right nor the bold, unbiased, and thus unfairly maligned institution some defenders on the left claim. To be blunt: There is voluminous nonsense on college campuses. I experience it first-hand as I often have to disabuse students of nonsense they ve picked up somewhere else in the university.

via quillette.com

I think law school must be different. I would guess perhaps 10 percent of our students are woke activist types. This may well be optimistic. The rest of them are busy or scared silent, which is of course bad. But at least it’s not actively malignant. As to law professors, I fear the numbers are much worse.

As luck would have it, my students seem especially charming this semester. They have all the attractive features of their generation. Unfailingly polite, grateful for whatever I teach them, e3vidently very studious, and best of all they seem to enjoy my attempts at humor. I assumed this would happen — I am leaving shortly after all and of course my students would make me regret my decision to go. Maybe I should go to the next faculty meeting to get my head right.