Universities Trashing the Liberal Arts Tradition

The American Conservative:

The world of higher education has seen some unfortunate events this year.

Middlebury College made headlines for students and faculty protesting a lecture by the noted sociologist Charles Murray. After decades of teaching literature at Providence College, Anthony Esolen left to take up a teaching position in New Hampshire at Thomas More College. Esolen’s “sin” was to call into question the university’s limited understanding of “diversity” and to draw attention to a more robust account of diversity at the heart of Western Civilization, the very program Esolen helped to found at Providence. Professor Paul J. Griffiths eventually resigned from his position at Duke Divinity School for being unwilling to participate in the school’s attempt to inculcate mandatory “diversity training.” In Griffith’s estimation, such training is not only anti-intellectual, but has a totalitarian flavor connected to it.

Cont....