The Wall Street Journal has published a list compiled by the Heterodox Academy of the least intellectually diverse institutions of higher learning.
The column starts by highlighting a recent announcement from Johns Hopkins University, which committed on Thursday to spend $150 million on pursuits related to increasing intellectual diversity and encouraging civil discourse across political divides on campus.
According to the list, the five worst offenders when it comes to viewpoint diversity include New York University, Northwestern, Harvard, UC-Berkeley, and the University of Oregon. DePaul University and the University of Missouri were also amongst offending schools.
“I think there’s a lot of embarrassment on campuses, so some kind of statement from the top might have good-sounding words but actions speak louder than words,” said Jack Citrin, a professor of political science at Berkeley who is a member of the Heterodox Academy, which promotes intellectual diversity on campuses. “I’d like to see what happens the next time [conservative intellectuals] Charles Murray or Ayaan Hirsi Ali try to speak on a campus.”
According to the column, the Heterodox Academy ranks schools based upon the school’s speech codes and the school’s record of censoring guest lecturers amongst a few other qualifiers.
Heterodox, which weighs schools’ regulations as well as the ratings of other first-amendment groups, cited Harvard’s history of censoring outside speakers, a blacklist on private clubs, fraternities and sororities, and a laminated “social justice” place mat handed out to students before winter break in 2015. The aim of the place mat was to help students prepare ‘for holiday discussions on race and justice with loved ones.’
For example, 10 would-be members of Harvard’s incoming freshman class for the fall had their offers rescinded after they were found to have participated in a group chat in which obscene and crude memes were exchanged. This came in the aftermath of Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust’s remarks at this year’s commencement in which she condemned those who wished to punish individuals for engaging in controversial speech.
““If some words are to be treated as equivalent to physical violence and silenced or even prosecuted, who is to decide which words?” she said.
Tom Ciccotta is a libertarian who writes about economics and higher education for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @tciccotta or email him at tciccotta@breitbart.com