Is political correctness destroying academic freedom? In the absence of accountability, it’s easy to see how academic freedom has morphed into a shadow of what it once was.

Anat Berko of the Gatestone Institute writes:

Terrorism-Lite: How Universities Let Students Abuse Academic Freedom

Academic freedom in the West is usually a given — or was.

Recently, however, American universities have been allowing students to shout down speakers, “disinvite” others, and punish — or threaten to punish — students simply for respectfully expressing their views. These curtailments of academic freedom and free speech place apparently take place without any consequences for those who curtail, agitate or disrupt. Ironically, often the very people who shut down free speech are treated as free speech heroes.

The latest display of (repeated) extremely questionable, if not illegal, judgment by a college administration involved an academic assault by the Dean of Students at Brandeis University, Jamele Adams, on an honor-roll senior, Daniel Mael.[1] “They try,” Mael said, “to intimidate students into being silent, in the interest of people’s feelings not being hurt, rather than encourage debate.”

These problems, unfortunately, seem to be widespread. Academic freedom, although sometimes abused, was originally provided, including tenure, to give scholars the right to communicate ideas freely, without retaliation, even if these ideas are sometimes viewed as “inconvenient.”

Recently, however, there has been a change. Academic freedom in the West has been shrinking to a point where in places it barely exists. Students, chosen so carefully, supposedly come to learn, but lately seem to have been trying to take over the house — too often, sadly, with the complicity of the administrations.