What Happens When Universities Put Ideologies Before Academic Values

Commentary Universities have always been the site of differing visions. But what happens to higher education when universities put social, political, or ideological values before academic values? History provides some clues. For example, Soviet genetics research was effectively destroyed by Lysenkoism. This pseudoscience vehemently rejected the theory of natural selection and instead aligned itself with the official ideology of Marxism-Leninism. Scientists who dared to deviate from the official line were dealt with harshly—either fired, sent to the gulags, or executed. Similarly, in the universities of the Third Reich, at a time when German scholarship led the world in many fields, the majority of professors went along with Hitler’s monstrous political vision, even as their Jewish colleagues were being sent to the camps....