Of all the leftist projects, the takeover of education in the U.S. is the most complete. There are just a few islands of traditional, sound, nonpoliticized education remaining in a sea of mediocre to laughable courses, many of which are used as soapboxes for activist professors to do their utmost to turn students into social-justice warriors.

Can anything be done?

In this Substack post, a writer under the nom de plume Ivy Exile laments the disastrous trends, focusing on Columbia University. He (or she) writes in answer to that question:

Structurally not much, with too many true believers and perverse incentives baked into the system. But that segment of university leadership and tenured faculty who privately know better could certainly show some more courage in standing up for freedom of expression, and concerned alums get a lot more involved. Like many formerly great institutions Columbia still retains capacity to be better than it is, with such resources and talented people around.

Right. College leaders are addicted to spending. Derek Bok of Harvard once wrote that college presidents are like exiled royalty and gambling addicts in that they never have enough money. Alums who don’t like what has become of the good old alma mater have some leverage by their choices to not give or to give very selectively. It’s time to use that leverage as much as possible.