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As co-chairs of the University of Michigan’s newly established Heterodox Academy Campus Community, we note with some disappointment that a recent editorial in The Michigan Daily takes a stand against institutional neutrality, arguing that the policy could be an excuse for the University to “escape responsibility.” On the contrary, institutional neutrality is a way to take responsibility for the kind of institution a university must be: a place for free thought, expression and debate.
Official statements on social and political issues foreclose debates rather than encourage them, which has serious consequences on the intellectual climate on campus. Those who argue that institutional neutrality favors the powerful and the status quo should remember that today’s common sense often starts out as yesterday’s radical opinions. Indeed, one could hardly come up with three better examples of that than the issues discussed in the editorial: climate change, abortion and conflict in the Middle East.
Higher educational institutions should stay out of politics as much as possible. While
politics plays a zero-sum game, that process is poorly suited for a university setting
because academic debates do not have clear winners and losers in the same way. Science, culture and law are never “settled” as popular mythology suggests. But when universities take political positions, they promote this false mythology, which confuses the public and endangers the University’s educational mission.
Institutional neutrality is necessary to protect heterodox opinions and keep the University’s educational mission front and center. Let citizens and politicians do politics. Our responsibility is to protect students and faculty from censorship so all may freely think, learn and debate in a vibrant academic culture.
The University of Michigan’s Heterodox Academy Campus Community soon will hold its first meeting for interested faculty, staff and students. Other co-chairs include professors Jason DeBord and Christian Casper. For more information or to be added to the email
list, contact Pär Cassel at cassel@umich.edu.
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