Miguel Afonso Caetano

Reactionary speech police in U.S. Academia: What else is new?

"That morning, I got onto what I thought was a casual call with a senior colleague, someone who spoke with me regularly in order to keep the university updated on Mill Institute activities. Once we were past the opening pleasantries, it immediately became clear that something was wrong.

My colleague told me that we needed to talk about a social-media post of mine that “had become a big problem.” I rarely post anything online, so I was confused about what he meant. Apparently, it had something to do with DEI, and had angered a major funder. “We’re trying to slow things down,” my colleague told me. I got the impression that he was upset about the message he was delivering.

I dimly recalled that I’d written something about DEI on LinkedIn. But I was still confused, because it had seemed like such an innocuous post (to me, anyway); and I couldn’t imagine how it would upset anyone in the UATX community, let alone lead to this ominous phone call.

In that post (reproduced below), I’d thanked writer and Yale professor Michael J. Strambler for mentioning the Mill Institute in a magazine article titled The False Binary of the DEI Debate. The piece, which struck a liberal tone, walked readers through the pros and cons of DEI programs, concluding that regardless of one’s position on DEI, none of us should lose respect for those who hold different opinions."

https://quillette.com/2025/05/16/is-the-university-of-austin-betraying-its-founding-principles/

#USA #DEI #Universities #HigherEd #Academia #UATX #Texas #FreedomOfExpression #FreedomOfSpeech

Is the University Of Austin Betraying Its Founding Principles?

Created as a haven for free thinkers, UATX was the last place where I’d expected to encounter ideological litmus tests.

Quillette
Jun 1 at 11:15amWeb
Show threadgary3d ago
@remixtures it is a thin bastion - you know texas, extremely confused about basics
Show threadCatarina 3d ago
@remixtures interesting that this conservative private magazine that claims is funded by grassroots never misses a chance to denegrate universities, hitting them from all sides using the "free speach" topic. This is not related with what the UoAustin is doing
Show threadMiguel Afonso Caetano3d ago

@catarinac In this case it's definitely the University of Texas, Austin which is in the wrong. The stated reasons are not solid enough to justify stifling free speech:

"Editor’s note: When a Quillette editor contacted UATX for comment in regard to the events and issues discussed in this article, we received the following response: UATX is unapologetically opposed to DEI. We believe these programs institutionalize ideological orthodoxy, lower academic standards, and promote a view of human identity that undermines individual dignity. That position is central to our mission. That mission: to offer the best undergraduate experience in the world to students dedicated to the pursuit of truth. We’ve been cutting partnerships and contractor work that don’t directly improve the academic experience for our students or help us recruit the right ones."

Show threadCatarina 3d ago
@remixtures this is part of the maga gospel, same arguments vomited by ben shapiro. I was not defending the university , no university shoudl aim to recruit the right students, what does that even mean.
But strange that the quiellette is publishing it