Academic Freedom and Academic Orthodoxy

<span>This piece was written for a collection of essays, edited by Lee C. Bollinger and Geoffrey R. Stone, titled “Academic Freedom in the Era of Trump” (forthcoming from Oxford University press in 2026). I first define academic freedom – crucial to the university’s primary mission of discovering truth and expanding and disseminating knowledge – as the absence of orthodoxy. I then suggest that universities have betrayed their mission by adopting an orthodoxy of their own. And because that orthodoxy is inherently antisemitic, universities have essentially created a wedge for Trump’s attacks. The source of the orthodoxy goes by many names, including anti-racism, social justice, or “woke” culture. It encompasses both a unified ideology and an operational arm in the form of the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) movement. The bulk of the essay describes this new academic orthodoxy (and gives examples), explains its inherent antisemitism, traces its historical origins, and suggests how universities should respond in order to rescue academic freedom from DEI’s stifling orthodoxy and reclaim their truth-seeking mission.</span>