Amid Republican lawmakers’ continued efforts to alter the ideological makeup of higher education’s major institutions, some colleges and universities are looking for a more moderate path to promote viewpoint diversity on campus.
The Trump administration has cancelled billions of dollars in federal research contracts tied to left-leaning ideologies, such as climate change and diversity initiatives. State legislatures are also trying to reorient the faculty makeup of certain institutions by introducing bills that weaken tenure.
“If our universities and community colleges are fixated on DEI, separating students by race and hiring professors who follow a monolithic liberal agenda, we are not preparing our students to learn how to analyze research and come to their own conclusions,” Ohio state Sen. Jerry Cirino told Ohio Capital Journal.
Amid continued political pressure, a new phase of viewpoint diversity is gaining traction with university presidents, many of whom describe college campuses as the backbone of civil discourse in American democracy.
“Higher ed writ large has not done a good job of fostering ideological diversity,” University of New England President James Herbert told University Business. “You must support free expression, but if all of our colleagues think the same, then [the conversation] is not really interesting.”
Surveys of student-facing college administrators and analyses of faculty political donations back up this sentiment, revealing an overwhelming representation of liberal voices among college staff.
Finding a middle ground
Alan Garber, president of Harvard University, which has caught the brunt of the Trump administration’s higher education agenda, has conceded that more institutions must address what conservatives describe as a lack of viewpoint diversity on campus. “In so far as that’s true, that’s a problem we really need to address,” he said in an NPR interview.
However, Garber, along with other leading higher education nonprofits, has criticized the government’s current measures to suspend institutional funding as a means to reshape higher education.
“Higher education can and must improve to earn and maintain the public’s trust,” read a signed compact among 50 higher education organizations. “But political attacks against higher education only divide and weaken us all.”
How civil dialogue can forge a new path
Promoting conservative voices on campus can help viewpoint diversity flourish, but it begins with teaching students how to speak across differences, says Scott Warren, a continuing faculty member at Johns Hopkins University.
“There’s this notion right now of universities needing to hire more conservative faculty members to address biases. While true, that’s not going to solve this underlying problem of getting students to learn how to engage with each other.”
As a fellow at Johns Hopkins’ SNF Agora Institute, Warren leads initiatives focused on convening a pro-democracy conservative agenda to address democratic reform. He also leads a freshman seminar focused on democratic erosion, which brings together students across the political spectrum to engage in thoughtful conversation.
Moderated discussion between politically opposed students helps them understand each other’s nuanced values and demystifies the extremism each side suspects of the other.
“You have folks on the right who are Trump supporters but are willing to push back on the stolen election narrative because they know that to be false,” Warren says. “You can be Republican and conservative and believe and trust in elections, too.”
Whether guiding students through difficult political conversations or teaching foundational principles of conservatism, Warren ensures that every exercise promotes healthy skepticism.
“One of the problems that we have in this country at large is a lack of political self-awareness,” he says. “The more we can teach students to have that—to constantly question and not follow dogma and ideology from either party—is important. How can we question rather than hold truths that might be aligned with a specific political party?”
Faculty are essential to encouraging different political perspectives. However, he worries it’s not happening as much as it could, Warren concludes. “Faculty members aren’t necessarily taught how to do that.”
