Nineteen economics professors at George Mason University have signed a statement in support of academic freedom and merit in education. The statement was published by professors Alex Tabarrok, Don Boudreaux, Bryan Caplan, and Robin Hanson on their respective blogs.
They write that academic freedom and merit are “the cornerstones of liberal education,” by which they mean classically liberal education, not progressive education.
But they note that those ideas are now under attack. “Pressure for conformity has intensified and universities have increasingly interfered with departments’ personnel decisions,” they write. “For example, at some universities, one of the more egregious new practices is the requiring of written ‘diversity’ statements by prospective students, staff, or faculty, then used to discriminate among candidates, often by quarters of the university with interests other than those of the department or unit.”
They write against that broader trend, but not against the university at which they work. “George Mason University has excelled in supporting viewpoint diversity with a variety of diverse departments, centers and organizations. Viewpoint diversity at George Mason has benefited the university, the United States, and the wider intellectual world,” they write.
As a graduate of GMU economics, I agree with their praise for the university on that front. The economics department is non-Left (it would not be fair to call it “conservative,” or even uniformly “libertarian”), as is the law school, while the rest of the university is, for the most part, standard-issue left-wing. Contrary to popular belief, it is possible to house multiple ideological perspectives under one institutional roof, and more universities should pay attention to GMU’s successes in doing so.
GMU has a “green” rating from FIRE, the academic free-speech watchdog group, which means that “all members of the George Mason University community enjoy the right to freedom of speech and expression.” Only 29 universities in the U.S. currently have a “green” rating. GMU ranks 17th in the country on FIRE’s overall college free-speech rankings.
“We, the undersigned members of the GMU Department of Economics, look forward to continuing our independence to do good economics according to our judgment, guided by the ideals of academic freedom and intellectual merit,” the statement concludes. The signatories are Jonathan Beauchamp, James Bennett, Donald Boudreaux, Bryan Caplan, Vincent Geloso, Timothy Groseclose, Robin Hanson, Garett Jones, Daniel Klein, Mark Koyama, David Levy, Cesar Martinelli, John Nye, Thomas Rustici, Vernon Smith, Alex Tabarrok, Karen Vaughn, Richard Wagner, and Lawrence White.