U.S. academia now so corrupted, it’s even harming ‘liberal’ college students, constitutional expert says

A constitutional expert has cited the results of research by Northwestern University to warn that American academia, the colleges, universities, their teachers and administration, have become so corrupted that they are hurting even “liberal” students.

The trend for those elite communities to become more and more leftist long has been documented, but the new findings by researchers Forest Romm and Kevin Waldman released the stunning confirmation that “an astounding 88%” of undergraduates at surveyed schools confirmed they “pretended to hold more progressive views than [they] truly endorse to succeed socially or academically.”

Jonathan Turley, the prominent George Washington University law professor and regular commentator on all things constitutional who has not only testified before Congress as a constitutional expert but as represented members in court, delivered the warning.

He explained that the fact that leftists are an overwhelming majority in academia “has been a long-standing problem in higher education.”

Now, he said, “The current generation of faculty and administrators has destroyed the sense of free thought and expression on our campuses. Faced with consistent polling showing that students feel compelled to mimic liberal ideology and viewpoints, faculty shrug or even attack students for being weak. In a debate that I had at Harvard Law School, a Harvard professor called such students conservative snowflakes.’
However, they are not conservative. Take Harvard. A recent survey of the graduating class by the Classroom Social Compact Committee found that, despite an overwhelmingly liberal faculty and student body, even liberal Harvard students found a chilling environment for free expression at the school. And it is getting worse.”

The survey authors concluded that the students were not cynical, but “adaptive,” meaning they were reciting back to professors what professors clearly demanded they be told.

“Faced with the intolerance and rigidity of liberal faculty, they pretend to be liberal to avoid being penalized for their real views or values,” Turley noted.

The study itself said, “In a campus environment where grades, leadership, and peer belonging often hinge on fluency in performative morality, young adults quickly learn to rehearse what is safe. The result is not conviction but compliance. And beneath that compliance, something vital is lost.”

Turley pointed out Harvard is “dead last among 251 universities and colleges on the annual ranking from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.

“What is most striking is the fact that Harvard has created this hostile environment while maintaining an overwhelmingly liberal student body and faculty. Only 9 percent of the class identified as conservative or very conservative,” Turley said. “Yet, even liberals feel stifled at Harvard. Only 41 percent of liberal students reported being comfortable discussing controversial topics, and only 25 percent of moderates and 17 percent of conservatives felt comfortable in doing so.”

Harvard faculty, he explained, “does not tolerate opposing voices except for a handful of conservative academics. The Harvard Crimson has documented how the school’s departments have virtually eliminated Republicans. In one study of multiple departments last year, they found that more than 75 percent of the faculty self-identified as ‘liberal’ or ‘very liberal.’”

He said, “The virtual purging of conservative faculty members across the country sends a message to students that such ideas are not favored or acceptable. The result is that the vast majority of students — liberal and conservative — self-censor in an environment of intolerance.”

That’s documented by the new study, which found, “Seventy-eight percent of students told us they self-censor on their beliefs surrounding gender identity; 72 percent on politics; 68 percent on family values. More than 80 percent said they had submitted classwork that misrepresented their views in order to align with professors. For many, this has become second nature — an instinct for academic and professional self-preservation.”

The evidence, Turley said, explains some things, as “on some issues, such as the nature of gender and gender identity, students’ actual beliefs are quite different from what appears to be the prevailing orthodoxy on campus.”

He said, “It also reflects why the last election shocked so many in the media and establishment, as young people voted Republican” while they simply “mouth liberal orthodoxy in class … .”