Scientific organizations that take a political stance may not be able to pay for faculty, student, and conference expenses, according to the group.
According to one conservative think tank, it’s a process that needs to end. Organizations like the American Mathematical Society, American Society for Engineering Education, and American Physical Society have replaced scientific endeavors with political campaigning.
A recently published report from the American Enterprise Institute reviewed roughly 100 intellectual associations and found “81 percentage have issued at least one official position on race or affirmative actions, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas issue, immigration, or weather change”.
According to the nine-page report, which was released in late August and titled” Scholarly Associations Gone Wild: Stop Publicly Funding Scholarly Groups That Trade Academics for Advocacy,” the majority of the positions took a left-leaning or progressive stance.
Vanderbilt University Chancellor Daniel Diermeier wrote an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal on Friday, arguing that” the trend of academic associations taking positions on political and social issues” is alarming.
He claimed that by turning them into advocacy groups, such positions stifle debate, silence dissentioning members, and undermine the legitimacy of organizations.
” The demands on university faculty have never been greater in our hypercharged political era. Higher education must stand strong against politicization”, Diermeier wrote.
That includes leaders from universities, but associations that have an impact on how conversations and careers in the academy are shaped by this also need to be taken into account. To be meaningful, academic freedom must not end at the edge of campus”.
Yet it appears the opposite is occurring.
In their co-authored report, Fredrick Hess, director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, and Jay Greene, senior research fellow for the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Education Policy, argued that academic associations have become more politically charged in recent years.
They argue that taxpayer-funded public universities and colleges should n’t spend public funds on memberships and conferences that support these organizations in order to address the issue.
Additionally, they suggest that academic organizations that take a political stance be prohibited from paying for conference expenses, faculty and student dues, and other expenses.
Hess stated to The College Fix,” we’re not suggesting that any funds be taken out of associations.”
Hess wrote in an email that” [w]e’re suggesting limits on how university faculty are permitted to use public funds,” noting that the same restrictions should apply to groups that use public funds to fund student involvement.
Of the 80 scholarly organizations that have released left-leaning statements in recent years, AEI estimated that public universities have spent close to$ 200 million annually on faculty dues and conference registrations, an amount that does not include food and lodging.
According to the report,” This politicization is corrosive to academic research, which requires that scholars be free to challenge strongly held beliefs and benefits from an academic community that allows discordant views and alternative analyses.”
The research found that of the 80 associations that took a stance, 88 percent took one on race or affirmative action, 60 percent on immigration, 35 percent on climate change, 34 percent on Ukraine, and 26 percent on the Israel-Hamas conflict. Three-quarters of the associations opined on multiple issues.
Both the STEM and humanities organizations published left-leaning statements on social and political issues. According to the report, roughly the same number of engineering organizations and the arts and sciences took a position on at least one issue.
The American Mathematical Society, for instance, demanded an “immediate halt to these hostilities and violations of international law” in relation to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The American Society for Engineering Education, meanwhile, credited George Floyd’s death to” a pervasive pattern and practice of learned, ingrained, and automatic behaviors that have and will require persistent, consistent, and resistant action to limit and eventually reverse”.
The American Physical Society endorsed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, denounced the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and supported climate-related initiatives.
These statements and more can be found on their websites under “policy statements”, the report noted.
According to the report,” The statements issued lack no evidence of intellectual heterodoxy.”
” They uniformly depict America as systemically racist, endorse race-based college admissions, oppose restrictions on immigration, deem climate change a catastrophic threat, denounce the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and oppose Israel’s military action in Gaza”.
The American Physical Society, American Society for Engineering Education, and American Mathematical Society did not respond to requests for comment from The College Fix.
Only two exceptions were found. In 2002, the American Physical Society spoke against boycotting Israeli scientists. In 2023, the Association for Jewish Studies said they “unequivocally condemn]ed ] Hamas for killing and kidnapping hundreds in Israel, targeting civilians, and perpetrating horrific atrocities”.
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