As our nation seems to split ever more along ideological lines, one university professor shares his experience about how these societal challenges are playing out on college campuses. In a video with the Charlemagne Institute CEO, Professor Mark Brennan explains how much pressure he faces on campus when it comes to discussing sensitive and highly politicized topics with his students.
Brennan explains, “Whichever side of the debate my comments come out on, it’s going to upset somebody and it’s going to explode and I’ll be out of a job. ”
As an adjunct professor at NYU and after having spent nearly a decade on Ivy League campuses, Professor Mark Brennan says one of the biggest problems he sees on college campuses is the erosion of civil discourse. The pressure of ideological conformity even extends to students, since, many professors are what he calls “new school liberals” and who reject differing viewpoints.
Brennan affirms, “You’ll submit a paper that’s well-argued and reasoned and supported by the evidence. You’ll hand it to some ideologue, and that ideologue will attack you unmercifully.”
He suggests that a step toward changing these problems is to prioritize teaching life skills. And as a society, to value character development over prestigious college labels.