Vx: Frustrated by liberal universities, conservatives aim to defund and destroy

[Virginiá]

Eternally frustrated by "liberal" universities, conservatives now want to tear them down

http://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2017/3/7/14841292/liberal-universities-conservative-faculty-sizzler-pc

Article is really long and detailed, and kind of intertwined so here are just a few parts I found interesting. This was written in response to those bills we saw that sought to forcefully balance the ideological diversity of university faculties.

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Thoughts?

[Virginiá]

Both sides are getting out of hand. Why don't we just have free speech on college campuses, period? I don't care about your feelings. College is not a safe space, your home is. Don't bring your grievances to college. You're there to study your major and to graduate.

Fair & balanced.

[Virginiá]

We shouldn't be using taxpayer money to pay for people to be indoctrinated by marxists for useless liberal arts degrees.

Putting aside the Marxist tripe, I would argue that that cuts both ways, at least in K12. Taxpayers shouldn't be paying for kids to be sent to religious schools via voucher programs. Nor should we be so lax with charter school funding, either.

The people calling for this are a handful of backbenchers in state legislatures. This is nothing short of whataboutism trying to pretend as if "both sides" are equally hostile to free speech-- but on campus, it's abundantly clear who the people hostile to free speech (or at least desirous of placing onerous burdens on its exercise) are.

It's not all about trying to force universities to hire conservative professors. It's about conservatives trying to starve schools they don't like of funding. It's been happening in a lot of places.

[Virginiá]

Well, my understanding is that the reduction state funding for public universities and colleges is something that's been happening for for quite a while, more or less independent of any concern over universities' ideological outlook.

The recession caused states to cut back and many never restored funding, or only partially. Since then, you've had numerous GOP-controlled states trashing the universities rhetorically and then proceeding to make changes and cuts that are detrimental to their well-being. Republicans have been railing against higher education for a while now. Given their power at the state level, of course they would move on this.