For longer than I have been alive, higher education has been a cesspool of anti-Americanism, censorious leftism, and cultural radicalism.
Moral corruption is and always has been particularly acute in the Ivy League and other putatively “elite” institutions. The pro-Hamas “protests” that have rocked college campuses since October 7 suggest that the jihadist anarchy seen at Harvard is being replicated in public schools in red states such as Alabama and Ole Miss. It shows the fact that it is not. (Related: Josh Hammer: It's time to restore order and crush campus jihadist thugs)
But sometimes something happens at an “elite” university that shocks an already exhausted conscience. For example, there was a triumvirate of “elite” university presidents. who testified He told Congress last December that whether the mass murder of Jews on campus was acceptable “depended on the circumstances.” There was also a March 2023 ruling by Judge Kyle Duncan. struggle session At Stanford Law School, a left-wing mob, incited by then DEI dean Tillian Steinbach, interrupted a 5th Circuit Court of Appeals jurist.
But perhaps the biggest embarrassment for rock academia in recent years has been the University of Pennsylvania's longstanding campaign against Amy Wax, the university's tenured law professor.
In 2017, Wax co-authored a book. Editorial The Philadelphia Inquirer lamented the decline of traditional bourgeois values throughout American society and suggested that this decline was responsible for many of America's current social ills. Almost immediately, 4,000 people signed a petition calling for Wax's ouster. Thirty-three of Pennlaw's colleagues also immediately condemned her. Wax, a vocal critic of mass immigration and a skeptic of multiculturalism, admirably refused to remain silent. She was further encouraged by the realization that in her 20 years as a teacher, black students almost never finish in the top half of their law school graduating classes.
The statistics seem to be racist.
During the two-and-a-half years that spanned her tenure as Penn Law dean, Wax has been under investigation for her misguided beliefs and alleged wrongdoing. This investigation provides valuable information that Penn Law could have used to promote free speech or—hey, what an idea?—to train students to actually practice law. Funds ran out. The investigation was prohibitively expensive, forcing Wax to retain a lawyer. Thankfully, the GoFundMe legal defense fund for the embattled professor has raised nearly $200,000 since its creation in July 2022. Witch Hunter: Aaron Sibarium observed The Washington Free Beacon also “makes Penn a pariah among academic freedom advocates.”
The verdict was finally handed down this week. Pennsylvania law suspended He was given a year's worth of waxing, a 50% reduction in his salary for the year, permanent revocation of his contribution chair and summer allowance, and a public reprimand. Interestingly, as Sybarium scooped, Penn Law previously told Wax not to “disparage the university,” not to sue Penn, and not to publicly disclose exculpatory evidence presented during the years-long investigation. He offered her a settlement that would reduce her punishment on the condition that she do so. Translation: Just shut your mouth and this problem will soon be solved.
Chairman Mao Zedong would have given his nod immediately.
Penn Law ranks in the latest edition of the oft-cited U.S. News & World Report law school rankings. tied for 4th place. High-achieving law school applicants try to get into it (rightly or wrongly), and top law firms try to hire from them (rightly or wrongly). Masu. When an institution like this allocates vast amounts of time and resources to punish and humiliate one of its own faculty, its purpose is clear. It's about sending a message. (Related: Report finds elite universities rank last for free speech)
In this particular case, the message could not be clearer: the knee must be bent. Walkism, unlike the liberalism of old, does not discourage dissent. Free inquiry must succumb to the stifling intellectual conformity that the left assumes is “progress.” Regarding the content of Wax's comments, we are prohibited from simply discussing race-based outcomes or speculating about underlying social phenomena that may have influenced those outcomes. Those who don't toe the line and denounce America as a bastion of “systemic racism” and support everything from reparations to race-conscious admissions practices are, in turn, themselves considered speciesist.
To call this scene “Orwellian” might be an understatement.
The Amy Wax Struggle Session should be a turning point in our higher education wars. College students should stop applying to Penn Law. Employers, from law firms to individual judges, should also stop hiring from them. And Congress should pass new laws that impose strict conditions on the spending of higher education funds. Private universities that penalize tenured professors for engaging in First Amendment-protected speech cannot receive a penny of public funding.
Wax vows to keep fighting. Maybe she will sue Penn Law. Perhaps she will win the case. But as is often the case, the process is the real punishment. And that humiliation is what matters.
To learn more about Josh Hammer and read features from other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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