The Chicago Trifecta
Harvard alumnus Dorian Abbot (AB 04, SM 04, PHD 08) outlines “practical solutions to the threat to free inquiry at universities,” proposing that “all universities should adopt and enforce rules requiring that: (1) the university, and any unit of it, cannot take collective positions on social and political issues (2) faculty hiring and promotion be done solely on the basis of research and teaching merit, with nothing else taken into consideration and (3) free expression is guaranteed on campus, even if someone claims to be offended, hurt, or harmed by it.”
As for how these rules will be enforced? “Faculty need to work together with students, alumni, journalists, and politicians to get this done.” Abbot highlights, among other levers, the role of alumni, citing their effectiveness at MIT.
