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Roth on Wesleyan

Voting is Good but Colleges Must Do More

November 5, 2018 by Michael S. Roth '78

Tomorrow is Election Day, and there is a polling place right on the Wesleyan campus. You can find out more about voting in Middletown through our Jewett Center for Community Partnerships here. 

As vital as voting is, I argue in an essay in Inside Higher Education that colleges and universities should do more in this time of peril for freedom of inquiry and expression. I reproduce the piece here. 

 

In a year when inducements to political violence have become normalized at the highest level, colleges and universities must do more than just encourage our students to vote. Free expression, free inquiry and fact-based discussion are essential to higher education, and we must protect them. Diversity and inclusion are core commitments, and so we must oppose those people who cultivate hatred against immigrants or trade in racist stereotypes. And when government officials go beyond obfuscation to outright lying, we must stand up and object. If we don’t, we become complicit in the calamitous corruption infecting our society, and it may not be long before the higher education we offer is no longer worthy of the name.

There may be no more obvious attack on freedom of expression and inquiry than the Trump administration’s regular demonization of the press. Can it be that we have gotten used to campaign rallies at which reporters are described as “disgusting” and the news media is labeled an enemy of the people? Can we abide a president who tells the media to “clean up its act” when it is the target of terrorism? If one objects to this crude stoking of animosity, defenders of the regime will accuse one of “pearl clutching,” as if defending the dignity of journalists were akin to protecting snobbish privileges. When authorities in Saudi Arabia devised their heinous plot to torture and murder a critic of the regime, did they assume their friends in the White House would understand their desire to punish a writer for The Washington Post? Is objecting to Jamal Khashoggi’s murder pearl clutching?

Education is degraded when freedom of inquiry and expression are undermined. We must not be lured, however, into confronting the poisonous partisan dogmatism coming from Washington with similar dogmatism of our own. If we do so, we will merely be preaching to our own choirs. We must instead promote the importance of intellectual diversity in higher education, and we must beware of confusing the critical thinking we value with the ready-made ideological positions held by the majority of professors and students. Colleges and universities must remain open to a variety of intellectual and cultural traditions if they are to speak meaningfully about freedom of inquiry.

We must also not let the administration and its supporters make a mockery of American aspirations toward diversity, equity and inclusion in our institutions and in the larger society. We at colleges and universities have an obligation to preserve those aspirations, for they are essential to the learning environments that we aim to create. The current demonization of immigrants, for example, is meant to instill a sense of fear and insecurity among folks who have lived in this country for many years as productive members of society. Many of our higher education institutions offer support to our undocumented colleagues and friends, and we have pledged not to voluntarily cooperate with federal authorities seeking to intimidate or deport them.

It is true enough that politicians from various points on the political spectrum have long pontificated, stretched the truth, pumped themselves up and distorted inconvenient facts. But over the last two years, we have seen a callous disregard for truth become an ordinary part of public life. Educators must push back on this trend, but not just by digging into our own ideological commitments. People of goodwill, of course, can disagree about issues concerning freedom, the role of the military, the importance of markets and the responsibilities of the state to protect law and order and to help the most vulnerable members of society. No political tradition has a monopoly on the truth. In fact, that’s why intellectual diversity and freedom of inquiry are so vital: we need that diversity and freedom to see the errors of our own ways and to discover more equitable and effective ways of facing the issues before us.

But we must also recognize that our public discourse has entered a new arena of willful misrepresentation. The dismissal of the dangers of human-induced climate change is the most egregious example of the repudiation of science for the sake of political expediency. President Trump routinely denies having said things that he has been recorded saying, and his mantra of complete denial when confronted with the facts is spreading to other politicians. From issues of sexual misconduct to votes against requiring insurance companies to protect those with pre-existing conditions, politicians have learned from this president that lying (loudly and repeatedly) works when the truth is inconvenient. Surely, educational institutions have as a core part of their mandate to expose falsehoods, to gain agreement on the facts of a matter and to leverage those facts for better public policy.

In the summer of 2016, I wrote in these pages to urge those involved in higher education to join forces “to stop the Trumpian calamity.” I spoke out on electoral politics at that time with great reluctance because I do not think it appropriate for university presidents publicly to back one candidate or another. But over the last few years, from Hungary to Brazil, from Italy to the United States, we have seen the intensification of authoritarian, populist political forces around the world. They all demonize a group of outsiders, and they all substitute appeals to myth and violence for inquiry and discussion.

We in higher education must not treat this intensification as a normal dimension of our public life. This political movement is antithetical to learning; it is anathema to research and teaching and to any possibilities for democracy. Our mission in higher education requires us to oppose it. This is not a call for partisan, political indoctrination. It is a call to preserve intellectual diversity and freedom of inquiry by standing up to the poisonous pollution of our public life.

Categories Uncategorized Tags Civic Engagement, Election Day, Inside Higher Education, Intellectual Diversity, Vote
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Michael S. Roth

Michael S. Roth became Wesleyan University's 16th president on July 1, 2007.

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Michael S Roth 8 hours ago

You don't mind his FAITH in its inevitability, which then leads to the need for salvation? twitter.com/AgnesCallard/s…

I grant he repeats it a lot. But it's worth repeating. pic.twitter.com/xdUHp3FTmu

— Agnes Callard (@AgnesCallard) May 16, 2022
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David Frum 12 hours ago

You could be a lot less worried about offensive and provocative speech in a country that didn't have 120 firearms per 100 inhabitants. worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings… Retweeted by Michael S Roth

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Michael S Roth 12 hours ago

These @wesleyan_u students are entrepreneurs aiming to make a difference newsletter.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2022/05/16/kar…

Karamat ’23, Cardenas ‘23, Ostfeld ’10, MA ’12, Winners of CT Entrepreneur Awards
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Wesleyan University 2 days ago

“These are ideas that we who are committed to education must fight…Today is a time for mourning the lives lost, the wounds of the Buffalo community, and the persistence of violent anti-black racism in our country.” —@MRoth78 roth.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2022/05/15/whi… Retweeted by Michael S Roth

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Michael S Roth 21 hours ago

Looking forward to spending time with this one ⁦@CornellPress⁩ ⁦⁦@histandtheojrnl⁩ ⁦@ekleinberg⁩ cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/978150176…

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Michael S Roth 1 day ago

White Supremacy, Guns, Murder "There will be a time for reflection, analysis and policy recommendations. Today is a time for mourning the lives lost, the wounds of the Buffalo community, and the persistence of violent anti-black racism in our country." roth.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2022/05/15/whi…

White Supremacy, Guns, Murder
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Kevin ☕️🎶 2 days ago

Freedom isn’t owning 25 rifles, it’s going to the grocery store and not having to worry about being killed by one. Retweeted by Michael S Roth

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Michael S Roth 2 days ago

Read ⁦@davidfrum⁩ “Racist ideology is an evil in itself. But the American exception that bathes this country in blood &grief..is not that we are uniquely susceptible to racism... The American exception is the unique ease of access to weapons.” theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

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Michael S Roth 2 days ago

"These are ideas that we who are committed to education must fight... Today is a time for mourning the lives lost, the wounds of the Buffalo community, and the persistence of violent anti-black racism in our country." roth.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2022/05/15/whi…

White Supremacy, Guns, Murder
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Michael S Roth 2 days ago

Adrienne Rich: I've walked there picking mushrooms at the edge of dread, but don't be fooled this isn't a Russian poem, this is not somewhere else but here, our country moving closer to its own truth and dread, its own ways of making people disappear. poetryfoundation.org/poems/51092/wh…

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Brent Staples 2 days ago

The news media normalizes racism and white supremacy when it fails to call them by their rightful names. Retweeted by Michael S Roth

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Michael S Roth 2 days ago

The “lifesaving trait that Australians displayed from the top of government to the hospital floor, and that Americans have shown they lack — trust, in science and institutions, but especially in one another.” via @NYTimes nytimes.com/2022/05/15/wor…

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Michael S Roth 2 days ago

Read Helen Lewis "something is lost when abortion-rights activists shy away from saying women. ..We lose the ability to connect women’s common experiences, and the discrimination they face in the course of a reproductive lifetime." @TheAtlantic theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

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Jennifer Szalai 3 days ago

A lot of Deneen's arguments seem to boil down to railing against sexual and reproductive rights; as much as he tries to dress up his post-liberalism with warped readings of Nancy Fraser and Karl Polanyi, he keeps coming back to gay marriage and sex. Retweeted by Michael S Roth

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Michael S Roth 2 days ago

Go Wes! #RollCards twitter.com/wes_tennis/sta…

#3 Wes Women’s Tennis advances to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament defeating Stevens 5-0🚨

The Cards take on the winners of Mary Washington and Washington & Lee tomorrow at noon❗️ #WeAreWes | #RollCards pic.twitter.com/JQ7tYxtwnm

— Wesleyan Tennis (@wes_tennis) May 14, 2022
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Michael S Roth 3 days ago

Congratulations! Good for @Columbia and for journalism twitter.com/jelani9/status…

I started my career at a small local DC paper called ONE in the early 90s then became an intern and eventually a contributor to the Washington City Paper @wcp. I’m so very grateful to those who gave me a shot. And now I get to do even more of that for others. https://t.co/Fz2m0YCCJ8

— jelani cobb (@jelani9) May 13, 2022
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Michael S Roth 4 days ago

Read ⁦@OlufemiOTaiwo⁩ questions: “What’s the most useful thing we could build together? How can we change the social landscape in a way that will be usable by us later, and by the people who come after us? That’s constructive politics.” @NYTOpinion nytimes.com/2022/05/12/opi…

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Michael S Roth 4 days ago

Read ⁦@JonMalesic⁩ “Professors must recognize that caring for students means wanting to see them thrive. That entails high expectations and a willingness to help students exceed them.” via @NYTOpinion nytimes.com/2022/05/13/opi…

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WesleyanMediaProject 5 days ago

New report from WMP: Abortion Mentions Climb After SCOTUS Draft Opinion @wesleyan_u @mmfranz @tnridout1 @efranklinfowler mediaproject.wesleyan.edu/releases-05122… Retweeted by Michael S Roth

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Michael S Roth 5 days ago

Read ⁦@NathanielRich⁩ on ⁦@VaclavSmil⁩ “His most valuable declarations concern the impossibility of acting with perfect foresight. Living with uncertainty, after all, “remains the essence of the human condition.”” via ⁦@nytimesbooks⁩ nytimes.com/2022/05/11/boo…

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