The challenge of higher education reform can be boiled down to one issue: the talent pipeline. If we can reconfigure the academic talent pipeline and ensure that those who believe in the classical mission of the university both choose academia and prosper in it, then the reform movement will succeed. If not, no list of policies, from securing campus free speech to dismantling DEI offices, will restore public trust in our universities.
Academia’s pipeline problem has deep roots. For more than a decade, universities have created special career paths for scholars whose mission is to advance the cause of social justice. In my recent City Journal series, I interviewed more than a dozen scholars and dug into hundreds of pages of public records to unpack this scholar-activist pipeline.
The series shows how administrators have used clever fellow-to-faculty hiring schemes to strong-arm departments and hire hundreds of professors throughout the country. Their tools include: undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral fellowships; faculty “cluster hiring” programs; faculty support grants; and administrator development programs. All have enjoyed ample funding from private foundations and the federal government.
On paper, these programs aim to promote demographic diversity. In practice, they heavily favor scholars whose research demonstrates a commitment to social justice, ensuring that a critical mass of scholar-activists advance through the academic ranks.
