To be clear up front, these two stories are not connected in any way except, as I think you’ll see, they suggest problems stemming from a common source. The first story I came across today was this one about Harvard faculty, a slight majority of whom admitted they would be hesitant to teach a class on a controversial topic.
A survey published by the university’s own Open Inquiry and Constructive Dialogue Working Group found a solid majority of profs now avoid touchy topics both inside and outside of the classroom, after things boiled over in the last year with campus protests related to the war in Gaza….
The 1,411 surveyed faculty and staff were prompted to “think about teaching a controversial issue in a class at Harvard” — and their primary reaction seems to be fear.
Just 18% said they would be very comfortable doing so, and 31% somewhat…
