Scott Yenor on the Corruption of Higher Ed

In a recent post on Law and Liberty, JMC faculty partner Scott Yenor describes how his institution, Boise State University, has progressed toward a “social justice” orthodoxy that is now threatening his career. The remarkable trend in higher education toward such orthodoxy threatens academic freedom, the liberal arts, and the responsible education of American citizens in our country’s political institutions. This dangerous trend is one reason why it is so important for the Jack Miller Center and institutions like it to provide support for teachers and scholars like Professor Yenor.

 

Boise State University’s Blueprint for Social Justice

by Scott Yenor
From
 Law and Liberty

 

Boise State University (BSU) has been my academic home since 2000. The university has grown as the greater Boise area has grown: the area has been a wonderful place to live and work.

National trends in higher education come a little later to Idaho and, perhaps because it is a deep red state, they often come a little gentler too. BSU is making a concerted effort to catch up to the rest of the country and to get with the diversity program.

I learned the hard way that I had “mis-underestimated” BSU’s effort to build what Jonathan Haidt calls a Social Justice University (SJU). Just how much BSU had changed became evident when I published a series of reports and articles concerning feminism and its relation to transgenderism in 2017.

This experience forced me to take a step back to see what happened at my home institution and why. I found that, brick by brick, BSU was building a diversity infrastructure to dismantle its “deep red” environment.

Continue reading at Law and Liberty >>

 

Scott YenorScott Yenor is a Professor of Political Science at Boise State University, where he teaches political philosophy. He lives in Meridian, Idaho with his wife, Amy, and his five children. He earned his Ph.D. from Loyola University, Chicago (2000) and his B.A. from University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (1993). He is the author of Family Politics: The Idea of Marriage in Modern Political Thought and David Hume’s Humanity: The Philosophy of Common Life and Its Limits. Yenor is also the director of the American Founding Initiative, a JMC partner program. In partnership with M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, JMC is currently supporting an AFI speaker series directed by Yenor as part of its Pacific Northwest Initiative. Click here to learn about the most recent event in this series.

 


 

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