What Is Higher Education For?
Readers respond to Bret Stephens's column about a Yale report on reforming academia, discussing the shift in the Republican Party's stance on science and the impact on academic politics. The writers argue that the Republican Party's increasing hostility to scientific facts has driven the shift in academic leanings.
Two readers responded to Bret Stephens's column about a Yale report on reforming academia. Richard Seager, a research professor at Columbia University, noted that the ratio of Democrats to Republicans at Yale's Faculty of Arts and Sciences is likely similar to Columbia's. He attributed the shift in academic politics to the Republican Party's growing hostility to scientific facts and evidence-based policy, citing examples such as President George W. Bush's withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol in 2001. Seager stated that a scientist voting Republican risks supporting policies that ignore and undermine science. Another reader argued that Stephens's criticism of graduate education is hypocritical, as it is academically rigorous and promotes independent thought. The reader defended the value of graduate education in fostering a 'genuine contest of ideas' and intellectual rigor.
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