Thread by @JeffreyASachs

In no particular order, some "heterodox" beliefs I have about higher ed that I think everyone on the Left should share.

1) There is a large lib/Dem-to-con/GOP imbalance among university faculty and it is naive to think that this is solely due to benign self-selection.

2) This imbalance almost certain affects faculty research (e.g. the types of questions asked, how results are interpreted), and probably also affects student learning outcomes and overall satisfaction, esp. for conservative students (e.g. via lack of mentorship).

3) Students self-censor in the classroom and elsewhere on campus. Much of this self-censorship is harmless (or even good!), but some probably isn't. Faculty and administrators should take more seriously the latter types.

4) Not everyone who advocates for free speech on campus is a grifter or conservative hack. Many are quite sincere (though these folks do a piss poor job pushing back against the grifters).

5) FIRE and Heterodox Academy don't deserve the level of hatred and mistrust they sometimes receive from the Left. They are flawed. I disagree with them often and am a member of neither. But on balance they probably do more good than harm.

6) Call-out culture does exist within the academy. It *may* have a positive role to play under certain circumstances, but can also be destructive. You know it's true.

7) Whenever anyone says that their teaching is a form of activism, I get a bit suspicious. There are all kinds of things this statement might mean, many of them harmless or laudatory. But others are decidedly less so, and we should guard against them.

I guess that's about it. There are probably others, but those are the ones that spring to mind.

Anyway, there are dark times ahead for higher ed, the Left, and the campus free speech debate. We need to seek out potential allies wherever we can.