Frederick Hess and Grant Addison of National Review Online probe the latest attacks on free academic inquiry.

In the past few years, the closing of the academic mind has become hard to ignore. When a Republican presidential candidate’s name chalked on a sidewalk is cause for student protest, “bias response team” investigations, or even calls to the police, universities are clearly not embracing robust dialogue. When faculty are disciplined for critiquing university-sponsored anti-bias training, it’s evident that only certain views are deemed permissible. So Pew’s new study showing that conservative support for higher education has plummeted was noteworthy but hardly surprising. Pew reported that nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of conservative Republicans say colleges and universities have a negative effect on the country, while 43 percent of moderate and liberal Republicans agree. …

… The problem is not that conservatives have lost faith in the mission of the university, but that too many universities have discarded their sacred commitments to dialogue and truth in favor of ideological crusades. …

… In short, the academy has abandoned its core values of free inquiry in the service of ever-more-rigid political dogmas.