Teen Vogue is the perfect place for UMass professor to argue that 'universities are right-wing institutions'

We don’t know about you, but when we’re looking for thoughtful, intelligent political analysis, we head straight for the pages of Teen Vogue:

Universities are right-wing institutions. I explain in @TeenVogue https://t.co/80iZi5naBy

— Asheesh (@AsheeshKSi) May 19, 2021

University of Massachusetts Assistant Professor Asheesh Kapur Siddique uses a lot of words in his explanation. Here are some of them:

The corporate capitalist regime that controls American university boards today has manufactured the current crisis of higher education by inflating tuition to compensate for state funding cuts while passing on the debt to students; hiring contingent rather than tenure-line staff to pay teachers less while withholding the security of academic freedom; and appointing administrators who are ultimately accountable to the regime.

…

The decline of faculty governance and the corresponding ascendancy of corporate dominance of higher ed undermines the long-repeated canard about radical dominance of the university. Additionally, there are the recent right-wing efforts to undermine or revoke tenure at public universities, as the Texas legislature is currently considering, and the budgetary challenges facing higher education that have been heightened by the pandemic. It’s clear this is a harrowing time for colleges and universities nationwide.

What is the left to do about the corporate capture of the modern university? First and foremost, it must support and spread labor organizing across the country, building on the momentum established this spring with the strike by graduate workers at Columbia University. Second, relentlessly push the Biden administration toward canceling all student debt and supporting free public college for all. Third, assert shared governance on campus and work toward building a democratic university that secures labor protections and fair wages for all faculty, especially contingent and graduate workers. If we don’t act, the corporatization of universities will destroy American higher education.

Your reasoning assumes *only* right wingers would hold these positions:

VP, Apple
CEO, investment bank
COO, radio conglomerate
partner, accounting firm
president, gas, insurance, or manufacturing co

Your inference is wrong. Left wingers dominate across nearly every industry. pic.twitter.com/zKN92JwB3Z

— russian peasant, gulag escape artist (@doukhobour) May 20, 2021

The reasoning is like this:

1. A university is right wing if its board of trustees and its allies (deans, provosts) is right wing.

2. A board is right wing if it includes right wing people.

3. You can infer if a person is right wing based on their associations. (see tweet 1)

— russian peasant, gulag escape artist (@doukhobour) May 20, 2021

If each premise is false, then that flips the sign of the conclusion and makes it true. I think I'm remembering the way logic/math work correctly, but maybe my university was just too right wing to teach those properly.

— Sam Yates (@satxsam) May 20, 2021

Heh. That’s probably it.

"Partisan political preferences have little to do with the production of academic knowledge or the day-to-day workings of the university — including what happens in classrooms."

This is naive. When it comes to social-sciences and faculty it's most obvious. I'll give examples.

— Eric (@EricsElectrons) May 20, 2021

“Of course math is neutral because 2 + 2 = 4 is trope…reeks of shire supremacist patriarchy according to this professor that used her “privilege” to blocked me. 2/nhttps://t.co/xPm2nmzWZi pic.twitter.com/LhAlITAGZD

— Eric (@EricsElectrons) May 20, 2021

Then we have academic social justice movement like Particles for Justice (physics), Shut Down STEM, & #strike4blacklives partly headed by activist academics who are hell bent on making their colleges obey all of their demands without question.

What’s wrong with this? Well..3/n

— Eric (@EricsElectrons) May 20, 2021

The problem with this is these people are not just professors. They work at organizations that work closely with schools and students. They determine what the culture is at conferences. They also have private online groups where they plan target attacks against academics. 4/n

— Eric (@EricsElectrons) May 20, 2021

When former conservative Prof. Mike Adams was attacked by academics from all over the US due to disagreeable things he said on twitter and pressured to step down after numerous death threats there weren’t many that came to his defense in these “conservative” institutions. 5/n

— Eric (@EricsElectrons) May 20, 2021

When he committed suicide, again, no one apologized or tried to fix the culture in academia. His death was largely looked at as “accountability.”

Board members don’t drive university culture. Students, professors, & staff do. Therefore, universities aren’t conservative. 6/n

— Eric (@EricsElectrons) May 20, 2021

This isn’t inherently a bad thing. But viewpoint diversity and tolerance should be a tenet of all universities. Especially, if they’re publicly funded. The public includes people who you, I, and we dislike.

7/n

— Eric (@EricsElectrons) May 20, 2021

The teen Vogue journalist and assistant professor of history just blocked me mid thread. 😂 Soft. pic.twitter.com/ivILsOEMRJ

— Eric (@EricsElectrons) May 20, 2021

Awww.

Shows how intellectually honest they are. Just block any rebuttals and you get to run your articles unopposed.

— Cody J 💉💉💉💉💉💉 whoa that's a lot of shots! (@CodyJassman) May 20, 2021

That's their game. Block, mute, and continue to yell in the echo chamber while profiting & claim to be oppressed.

— Eric (@EricsElectrons) May 20, 2021

And then write about it in Teen Vogue, of course.

Well…at very least you've countered the old chestnut that the left can't write satire or produce memes.

— Wilfred Reilly (@wil_da_beast630) May 20, 2021