Universities Must Reject Creeping Politicization

Daniel Diermeier, chancellor of Vanderbilt University (TN),  and Andrew D. Martin, chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis (MO), write:

American research universities are at a crossroads. The creeping politicization of our campuses has become a crisis we cannot ignore. In a polarized era in which every American institution has become a political Rorschach test, the Israel-Gaza conflict, in particular, has divided college campuses and public opinion to a degree unseen since the 1960s. Universities are now in the crosshairs of government and activists alike.

Some universities have exacerbated the situation by drifting from their core purposes of education and research to take official positions on political and social issues. This has led many to see universities as just another ideological combatant in the daily political struggle. Public confidence in American higher education has reached an all-time low.