The Pushback Against Universities’ Woke Agenda

Commentary It was a safe space for people who don’t believe in safe spaces. The Centre for Heterodox Social Sciences’ (CHSS) annual conference in Buckingham, England, this past summer brought together hundreds of academics from around the world to discuss the malign impact that woke policies and attitudes are having on their universities—what many have called the Great Awokening. But unlike most events of this nature, the mood was upbeat and positive. The Great Awokening has deeply damaged Western universities. The most obvious proof is the vast supply diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) offices that oversee the exclusion of certain applicants, most often white males, from school job postings. Other telltales include research agendas obsessed with gender and race and the acceptance that certain views should be banned from campus. This narrowing of opinions together with outright discrimination and censorship has deeply eroded the moral authority and research capabilities of higher education throughout the West....