Letters from Our Readers

"After twenty-four years of teaching at a suburban public university-one that primarily serves working- and middle-class students-I find that this is not the aspect of the Administration's actions that frightens me most. What I see today is that, under Donald Trump's direction, critical thinking is under assault. Across disciplines, Trump's agenda threatens one of higher education's core missions-to teach the next generation to think critically about power's relationship to knowledge."

"According to Gallup, the share of Americans who view college as "very important" has declined sharply in recent years, from seventy-five per cent in 2010 to thirty-five per cent today. Many commentators have framed this as a symptom of anti-intellectualism. In my opinion, what this transition really reflects is decades of capitalist individualism. We stopped treating higher education as a shared civic good, and started selling it as a private investment promising personal prosperity."

"In this respect, universities bear some blame for their own decline. Chasing privilege, tuition revenue, and rankings has blurred their mission. Green shows how federal strategy has weaponized this distrust by building on a feeling, already possessed by much of the public, that universities are not public partners but misbehaving contractors. This strategy deepens the cynicism that it exploits."

Political attacks and market-driven pressures are undermining higher education's capacity to foster critical thinking and inquiry. Critical thinking is endangered when knowledge-seeking becomes subordinated to ideology, leading institutions to teach compliance with official power. Public valuation of college has dropped from seventy-five percent in 2010 to thirty-five percent, reflecting decades of capitalist individualism. Treating higher education as a private investment rather than a civic good eroded trust when promised returns faltered. Universities contributed by prioritizing privilege, tuition revenue, and rankings, blurring their mission. Federal strategies have amplified public distrust by framing universities as misbehaving contractors, deepening cynicism and weakening higher education's civic role.

Read at The New Yorker