A University for Non-Leftists

Long, but worth reading More generally, Treadgold pointedly observes that colleges which swim against the dominant leftist tide are neither eminent nor influential. He does not see in these institutions the building blocks of an academic renaissance and a flourishing of learning. His ultimate aim is to encourage genuine scholarship, not the furtherance of a particular politics. The fact remains that the most original and impactful research is conducted at elite institutions dominated by a counter-cultural ethos. The American elite is educated disproportionately at these institutions, including Treadgold’s alma mater, Harvard. Thus his proposal for a new university that is not self-consciously conservative, and that competes directly with academia’s top tier. Treadgold has clearly given a great deal of thought to the details of this idea. Not only does he propose a location (the suburbs of Washington, D.C., to be near a center of power), but he has suggestions for the layout of the campus quadrangle, the character of the food in the cafeteria, and the university’s official stances on cultural touchstones such as free speech and gender. FULL