How to Storm and Save an Ivory Tower

Not until quite recently did American colleges cease being free expression zones. After University of Chicago professor Allan Bloom sounded the alarm with his bestselling The Closing of the American Mind: How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today's Students in 1987, the intellectual aperture diminished gradually until it atrophied, during the last couple of years, to a mere sliver. According to the latest survey by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), 87% of college faculty report finding it “difficult to have an open and honest conversation on campus on at least one hot button political topic.” Hardly a headline grabber, the only surprises are the huge number of the respondents, few of whom are conservative, and their candor.