Confidence in higher education has plummeted because colleges nationwide have created a culture of fear by squelching free speech and eliminating ideological diversity, according to a philosophy professor who left his job over similar complaints.
"The reason that people don't trust the academic institutions is because they're not worthy of our trust," said Peter Boghossian, a founding faculty member at the University of Austin. "There are multiple levels of injustice going on, but I think when you think about it from a student point of view and the money that people are paying for their education, that's really a shame."
"It's a terrible injustice to these kids," he continued.
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Americans have increasingly lost their faith in higher education over the past several years. Just 36% of adults said they had a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in higher education compared to 57% in 2015, according to a Gallup poll published in July.
"The whole enterprise is corrupt," Boghossian said. Academic institutions have "called out voices of people with whom they disagree. They have systemically removed any kind of disagreement."
Boghossian is a founding faculty member at the University of Austin, which was founded in November 2021 on the principles of freedom of inquiry, freedom of conscience and civil discourse. He was previously an assistant philosophy professor at Portland State University until he resigned, saying college had become beholden to social justice ideologies.
"The entire mission of the university has changed," Boghossian said. "It was impossible to teach."
"The teachers look at the classroom as an ideology mill, as a way to replicate the dominant moral orthodoxy, as a way to perpetuate that ideology in the classroom," he continued.
In 2015, 68% of Democrats held confidence in colleges, but that dropped this year to 59%, according to the Gallup poll. Republicans remaining confident, meanwhile, fell from more than half to just 19%.
"I'm very surprised that the number was 19%," Boghossian said. "If those people actually knew what was going on in higher education, it would be 0%."
University scholars and speakers have faced student backlash over their political views, resulting in canceled speeches and even terminations and resignations. In March, for example, students and an associate Diversity, Equity and Inclusion dean heckled conservative Judge Kyle Duncan during his remarks at Stanford University Law School, preventing the judge from finishing his lecture.
FORMER GEORGETOWN PROFESSOR CALLED RACIST BY STUDENTS AS HE DELIVERS LECTURE ON FREE SPEECH
"We have a group of people who dominate the academic institutions, who have jobs for life, who have a unique, vocal ideological perspective that brokers no dissent," he said. "They look at their jobs as indoctrinating kids … putting ideas in their head about what they think is true about reality. That is a catastrophe."
Boghossian said higher education has failed students by hiring biased and unqualified educators, squelching free speech and eliminating discussions between people with different ideologies. Universities also haven't protected educators' First Amendment rights, he said.
"People need to hear the other side of the argument, and they need to wrestle with the other side of the argument," Boghossian told Fox News.
In the last two decades, attempts to punish college scholars for their speech has skyrocketed from four in 2000 to 145 last year, according to a Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) survey published in April. Nearly three-quarters resulted in sanctions, and almost a quarter led to termination.
Boghossian also criticized universities focusing on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, saying they have led to more polarization.
DEI programs have aimed "to limit people's speech, to tell them what they can and cannot talk about, to make sure that they maintain the narrative," he said.
DEI offices have typically intended to help integrate a wider array of ethnicities and backgrounds into colleges while helping students achieve equal outcomes and feel comfortable at school. They often offer mentoring programs, events and other activities and recruit students and staff of different racial backgrounds to add diversity on campus.
But opponents have said such initiatives create race-based favoritism.
Boghossian told Fox News the University of Austin has broken from the mold of academic institutions beholden to DEI bureaucracies. While the college doesn't yet offer degrees, students can take the school's "forbidden classes" in Dallas.
"It's a class where diverse views, actually people who hold different opinions, are presented about topics we wouldn't or couldn't or shouldn't even talk about," Boghossian, one of the lecturers, previously told Fox News. "If you have a sincere question, you're welcome to ask that, even if some people may be offended by that question."
The philosophy professor told Fox News he hopes the University of Austin will help overcome "wokeism."
"We can regain the trust in our institutions," Boghossian said. "But this is not going to be easy, and it is going to be a long, slow march."
"You have to be willing to speak up when you hear an injustice, but you also have to be willing to understand what is the complaint," he said. "We just have to want to start talking to each other again."
