Colleges and universities ought to be places for free speech, unrestricted inquiry and debate — right?

Sadly, there are powerful forces that don’t agree. They want to close down speech, inquiry, and debate that they don’t like. Sometimes the motive is ideological; the authoritarians hate it when people say the wrong things. Sometimes the motive is money; academic leaders sometimes choose a stream of money from an authoritarian source over allowing free speech that puts that stream of money in jeopardy.

A new book by Sarah McLaughlin of FIRE, Authoritarians in the Academy, explores that problem and I review it for the Martin Center here.

The biggest villain is the government of China, which has been ladling money into American colleges and universities in an effort at influencing how we view it. Lots of Chinese students pay full tuition and college leaders fear to offend the Chinese lest they send their students elsewhere.

McLaughlin relates the case of George Mason University, where some students posted flyers critical of the Chinese government’s human rights abuses. That led a group of Chinese students at GMU to complain and demand action against the students responsible for “insulting” them. Astonishingly, the president of GMU sided with them, issuing a groveling statement and promising to investigate and punish the students. He later backtracked — but only after encountering severe national criticism.

Another problem McLaughlin exposes is that of American and British universities opening campuses in countries that are unfriendly to academic freedom, the United Arab Emirates, for example. The western schools pledge that they will operate just as if they were at home, respecting and protecting academic freedom. But they don’t always live up to those promises, sometimes with horrible consequences for students who believed they were free to speak and conduct research.

Authoritarians in the Academy is one of those books that turns over a lot of rocks, exposing the unpleasant things going on underneath — in this instance the loss of academic freedom when college officials put money and reputation ahead of principle. The book deserves a wide readership. As Justice Brandeis remarked, “Sunlight is the best disinfectant.” Thanks to Sarah McLaughlin’s efforts, sunlight now shines on lots of disreputable conduct by college leaders.