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Letter from America

Colleges are not

battlegrounds

DR. LARRY ARNN

ANY OF THE MOST PRESTIGIOUS American Students in elite institutions are
universities have become dysfunctional during
the past month. They have been unable to con- highly privileged. Why do they not
Mtrol violence on their campuses. Several haven’t spend this precious time, while they
held in-person classes for fear that some students will be
threatened or harmed by others. The immediate cause of are young and full of energy, learning
these eruptions is the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. As I write about the world instead of fomenting
this, the situation is going out of control.
A Jewish student has been stabbed in the eye at Yale. riots to change it?
Protesters encampments have been set up in Columbia and
several other elite universities. In some cases, they are set education. It is the best training for leading a purposeful
up along the path that visiting admission candidates take life.
through the campus, and they feature anti-Semitic post- The very word “college” means partnership. It is not a
ers. Groups of students have locked arms across one of the place of battle, but a place of reasoning together. Human
main pathways into campuses holding signs that Jews may beings are unique in their ability to reason. In ancient
not enter. Institutions of higher learning, supposed to be Greek, the word for reason is logos, which is also the word
havens of reason and calm, have been taken over by riot for speech. They are from the same faculty. Whatever we
and disorder can say, we can think; whatever we can think we can say.
The immediate solution is clear: students who obstruct Students who realise this don’t go to war with each other
academic work of a college/university should be arrested over conflicting opinions. Instead, they link their opinions
forthwith. Universities have a right to do their work and to their knowledge sources. This requires cooperation that
those who seek to stop them violate that right. At the Uni- draws people together. It takes them away from opinions
versity of Texas, protesters who disrupted the campus were toward the truth. In ancient western philosophy, philoso-
quickly hauled up by the police. This should be done in all phy itself is defined as the attempt to replace opinion with
cases. knowledge.
The causes underlying these protests are deep and grave.
Students in elite institutions are highly privileged people. nfortunately, many elite universities in the United
They live in comfort and have tremendous opportunities UStates seem to have abandoned purpose of knowledge
to learn. Why do they not spend this precious time, while acquisition for social revolution. This is a tendency in mod-
they are young and full of energy, learning about the world ern philosophy. Machiavelli criticised ancient philosophers
instead of fomenting riots to change it? for building imaginary republics to establish the ideal. The
To condemn Israel, or Hamas, requires one to be aware real work, he wrote, requires repairing the republic in which
of facts and principles that universities exist to teach. What we live now.
is the history of the modern Middle East? How did Israel On many elite campuses in America right now, the solu-
come into being? How Gaza? How is Israel governed? How tion offered is to kill the Jews, drive Israelis into the sea.
is Gaza? What are the stated aims of Hamas? Of Israel? That would be an exercise of force. The purpose of higher
What are human rights? Wonderful things have been writ- education instead is learning and persuasion. If those capa-
ten over ages about all these subjects, and an institution bilities are used first, better judgments will be made about
of higher learning is the very place to explore these issues. when force must be used, and perhaps how to avoid it alto-
One fact among many that will emerge from any serious gether. A lower body count will be the outcome.
study of the history of the modern Middle East is that most Hillsdale College where I work is also an elite college.
of its countries emerged after World War I and the fall of Here we proceed under an honour code that permits us to
the Ottoman Empire. During that war, Britain and France say whatever we please so long as we say it in a civil and
made commitments to Arabs and Jews that if they joined academic manner. We have many disagreements, but they
the fight against Germany and Turkey, they would be given haven’t become violent because we cultivate friendships
homelands in the Middle East. Thus Israel and Iraq, for necessary for learning together. This is the harmony that
example, were born following these promises. Knowledge institutions of higher learning were promoted, millennia
of these facts might give violent protesters pause, and that ago, to develop. This helps the old and young to learn valu-
is just one of the many facts the protesters need to know. able truths together.
These are serious questions and addressing them will My wish is for students to be able to attend colleges/
lead one to the study of history and political philosophy, fas- universities that produce this learning environment.
cinating disciplines that offer rich rewards of comprehen-
sion. To learn such things is the very purpose of university (Dr. Larry Arnn is President, Hillsdale College, USA)

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