Thread by @biblioracle

I believe faculty who have labored in private colleges and universities do not fully appreciate how difficult it is for those who work in public institutions in states where those institutions are convenient punching bags for politicians looking for political gain.

Elevating the importance of "viewpoint diversity" as a kind of affirmative action for conservatives in private institutions may make sense as an intramural debate, but in states like South Carolina, they become a cudgel with which to clobber public higher ed.

The coddling/wokeness debate may feel like a battle for who gets listened to at private institutions, but in public ones it is an excuse for hostile legislatures to punish institutions, faculty, and students.

For this reason, it's important to be cautious about who you align with. Inviting obvious bad actors like Chris Rufo or Turning Points USA/College Fix into your tent because they're aligned against your opponents leads to the kind of crackdowns state institutions are experiencing

Aligning with people who have no wish to preserve the institution so you can shape the institution more to your preferences does real damage to those of us who are vulnerable to political oversight in public institutions.

Laundering the harassment campaigns of College Fix/Campus Reform because you think liberal faculty and students are too ascendent at your institution is just going to invite more harassment on your colleagues. insidehighered.com/blogs/just-vis…

Declaring that Florida's transparent crackdown on institutions is a wrong solution to a real problem does the work of those who are authoring the crackdown, no matter what you might believe about that problem. universityworldnews.com/post.php?story…

Anyway, for those of you who do work in private post-secondary institutions and who see advantage to yourselves for aligning with people like Chris Rufo or even just staying silent in the face of his propaganda campaign. Consider the harm this is doing to the vulnerable.