Bradford Vivian

@bradvivian.bsky.social

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Professor + Author | Words in @washingtonpost
@insidehighered
@PhillyInquirer @ConversationUS @ArcDigi | Views my own. Substack: https://bradfordvivian.substack.com/?r=2r65kj&u

Posts Replies Media

I'm skeptical about many DEI projects in higher ed. But exaggerations and falsehoods about it have fueled a historic wave of censorship in schools + given new life to the lie that some groups are inherently unqualified for leadership positions. 1/4 shorturl.at/kWmnv

Reply to

Ana Marie Cox

It doesn’t take a lot of digging to see how badly mainstream media has misled the public about DEI in university hiring. Closely reading just a couple of paragraphs will do. shorturl.at/i8F2x

I think this is the crux of it. Does he really sound that way to them? Or is that a projection shared among columnists in their own sort of echo chamber? A lot hangs in the balance on this.

Going by the largest meta-analyses of survey research, college-aged young people routinely show greater openness to free speech and diverse views than other groups. Going by historical and structural trends, higher ed today is more intellectually diverse and tolerant than ever before.

The only debate that matters.

open.substack.com/pub/bradford...

Never forget.

Me, about halfway through the semester when I worry that my students are getting bored.

A researcher on X responded to my critique this way (see below), as if it invalidated then. Okay, great, let’s talk about that report and have a teachable moment…1/3

The facts are *only* in dispute. 1. No official records exist about whether profs are liberal or conservative. That's a good thing--in a free society, we don't require such records. Any surveys are small, strictly voluntary, often poor in quality. 1/3 🧵 www.chronicle.com/article/why-...

Why Are There So Few Conservative Professors?www.chronicle.com The facts are beyond dispute. The causes and solutions are not.

Didn’t take long.

Propaganda is inherently predictable and repetitive.

From 1924: when jazz music was blamed for an alleged spike in suicides and organizations were created to protect children from it.

Highly recommended: “Techdirt Podcast Episode 395: What An Actual Expert Thinks About Kids & Social Media” www.techdirt.com/2024/06/18/t...

This is really the gist of what I said yesterday:

Place this growing centrist movement alongside the many pieces of state legislation + school board candidates that base their views on Coddling of the American Mind: Haidt’s direct influence over policies that govern young people’s live is enormous. www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/...

Gavin Newsom wants to restrict smartphone use in schoolswww.washingtonpost.com The California governor’s statement comes amid increased scrutiny of how social media apps impact youth mental health.

I mean…

Gavin Newsom wants to restrict smartphone use in schoolswww.washingtonpost.com The California governor’s statement comes amid increased scrutiny of how social media apps impact youth mental health.

This kind of argument about schools is a classic sign of authoritarianism. It’s the opposite of how officials who value individual rights and free society should speak about education.

What would count as *evidence* (not opinion) that diversity statements ARE being used as “loyalty oaths” to weed out candidates? You’d need proof of people in hiring committees saying they’re using them that way. So where are those (typically confidential) records? See what they’re doing here?

Not quite the reckoning with journalistic priorities I was hoping for.

What if other non-university orgs want to really defend free speech—should they also stop making official statements about policy issues?

What about when university leaders testify in Congressional hearings designed to pressure them into making specific political statements as a kind of loyalty oath to state officials? Will they refrain from making any statement then, too?

One of the lesser-noted parts of Haidt’s popular thesis about cell phones + children: it promotes a socially constructed idea of childhood as a natural state of innocence. It’s a traditional white, middle-class idea of childhood as edenic escapism that ignores systemic treatments of BIPOC children.

This is a good example of how organizations in the US are helping normalize authoritarian terminology (whether they know it or not) by promoting pseudoscience about young people, mental health, and education. 🧵 1/9

What about combatting segregation? Ensuring equal access and treatment for women, LGBTQ citizens? Encouraging religious and cultural pluralism? Promoting peaceful conflict resolution rather than rule by force? Should university leaders boards stay neutral on these issues?

There’s a strong sense in which college campuses *are* changing the culture—for the better. Higher education is under political assault because it’s working to make society more egalitarian, less segregated, less beholden to traditional intellectual hegemonies.

100% to this from The Atlantic. Misinformation campaigns about universities and political movements organized to restrict them undermine democratic society in general and indicate rising authoritarian sentiment. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...