View of the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. (Photo: EQRoy, Shutterstock)
Globe Contributor: My Decision to Leave Academia
Their reality is so different from the rest of the world’s, and it has been for a long time
By J. Mitchell Sances, May 16, 2024 3:10 am
What do you do when your passion and career trajectory have been infected with amorality? This is the question I was forced to ask myself after over a decade of working toward what I thought was to be my goal: ensconcing myself in academia as a prolific researcher and respected professor.
It was no secret that education in America was in a downward spiral for much of the 1990s and early 2000s—data from the National Assessment of Education Progress shows only about 30% of students in the U.S. were and are proficient in basic educational fundamentals.
Educators have placed the blame on many factors including the implementing of No Child Left Behind—what some in the business unaffectionately called No Child Gets Ahead. The wildly unpopular George W. Bush program has been criticized for focusing on the students with lower proficiencies and ignoring the needs of higher performing students allowing them to slip through the cracks in true collectivist fashion.
To me, someone who was privileged enough to receive stellar Catholic private education all my life, these battles were fightable and winnable. As part of the system, I could aim to affect change from within, and with my zeal, passion, and ambition I was poised to do so. Alas, a wave of postmodern thought had other plans—the type of thought in which there is no such thing as objective truth and anything majoritarian is evil.
I was well aware that the conservative values and ideals that I held were already frowned upon in academia. Upon entering graduate school, I was warned by a then-professor of English never to divulge my political or religious proclivities as I might be shunned or black-listed. I heeded this advice, but then I started to notice that the extremism that was infecting the institutions was beginning to take out even liberal thinkers.
In 2015, Professor Bret Weinstein of Evergreen College in Washington spoke out about questionable and racist activities being done in the name of “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.” The university’s administration allowed a mob of students subsequently to take the campus hostage and threaten Professor Weinstein’s life without real repercussions.
This isolated incident was a warning bell I chose to ignore. However, I began to notice things in my own field, the field of Linguistics. In 2020, the name and abstract of a conference presentation found its way into my inbox. The presentation was entitled, “Corpus linguistics in solidarity with struggles for justice: A methodological reflection on using corpora to examine and critique ideology.” In a morbid curiosity of what this word-salad meant, I read the abstract.
It discussed ways that linguistic research can serve social justice ends. One method of doing so stated, “[C]orpus linguistics should challenge and reject dominant epistemologies that assert, among other things, that research should be neutral, objective, or apolitical.” In other words, the author is suggesting we challenge and reject the notion that science should be objective, neutral, and apolitical. Such a suggestion would mean the death of science and objective fact, and the fact that a self-professed scientist is proposing this should be indicative of what academia has become.
But perhaps the most personally illustrative example and final straw for me came when a professor whom I respected and viewed as having integrity and morals made it clear that she too had been compromised by the new extremist thought. In the wake of a department-internal scandal involving a minority student being awarded a doctoral degree under “questionable” circumstances, this particular professor, when questioned about why she did not speak up about the clearly dishonest tactics said, “As a white woman, I did not feel it was my place to question her.”
Seeing the one person I admired and respected and hoped to emulate, debase herself and her integrity out of fear of being labeled as “racist” was the defining blow of my career hopes. I decided at that moment I would not allow myself to be put in a similar position or associate with people who thought awarding a degree based solely on race was acceptable.
This kind of extremism has been spreading through academia with the advent of what some call “Grievance Studies”—things like Critical Race Theory (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/09/20/the-man-behind-critical-race-theory) which began in law schools in the 1960s. It has gone somewhat undetected by the general population until recently. With the pandemic forcing parents finally to see what their children were being taught, many of them rightfully sounded the alarm.
Perhaps the most contemporary issue plaguing our country’s universities shows just how deep this amorality goes. The campus protests, riots, and encampments supporting terrorism and the genocide of the Jewish people have blown the door off of any attempt to hide the absolute cesspool that academia has become. As Americans look on the war zones that campuses like UCLA have become, they may be shocked by the evil rhetoric and stilted worldview of these students. Unfortunately, I watch unfazed and unsurprised.
Faculty and administrations have created this monster. They preach about how political activism and the dismantling of institutions is a moral obligation. They purposefully seek out students who have participated in social unrest. They teach Marxist and anti-American sentiments. Then they are surprised when riots and hatred for the western world are the outcome.
Furthermore, the recent testimony of the three Ivy-league demagogues about antisemitism on college campuses revealed the true nature of these administrators. Claudine Gay, and others of her ilk, snickered at the thought of denouncing genocide because to them challenging any extremist narrative is absurd. Their reality is so different from the rest of the world’s, and it has been for a long time.
I must say that part of me thanks those women and the pro-terrorist protestors for showing the disgusting truth. Now I no longer have to field questions like, “Why did you give up on your dream?” and “Why did you work so hard just to leave academia?” To anyone with a soul, that answer should now be obvious.
I return to my original question: What do you do when your passion and career trajectory have been infected with amorality? As I see it, there are only two options, as the trite saying goes. You either beat them or join them. I am choosing the former, and with my integrity and soul in the balance, I will continue to attempt to beat them or die trying.
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Good for you. Galatians 6:9 encourages us to “never grow weary of doing good”. I would encourage to you to continue to keep on doing good and to keep up the good fight of faith as in due time you will reap a reward. I have notice as of late folks of faith in all types of vocations having to face similar moral situations as you have described. Taking a stand for good is contagious and is an example for others to follow. God’s best to you and yours.
I’ve noticed a similar trend in my own profession and recently begun to consider other career options. I’ve been in the planning field for the past 24 years and been accredited through the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP), which is affiliated with the American Planning Association (APA). Well before the socio-political upheavals of 2020, the APA has been pushing the woke ideologies of CRT and DEI. No longer content with just promoting reasonable and sustainable growth and development policies in our communities, it has been pushing woke social engineering practices that seek to “atone” for past injustices. Most APA events and meetings now begin with a “land acknowledgment” which I find both idolatrous and cringeworthy. There’s constant pandering to minorities through identitarian sections (sub-chapters of the APA) based on ethnicity and sexual orientation. What does one’s ethnicity or sexual inclination have to do with being a planner? So, it’s not just academia that’s been infected with this contagion. Persevere!
I applaud you Mr. Sances for standing for your values. You are now free to be you. You now have taken those chains of academia and thrown them to the ground. You will probably ask your future self why you did not act sooner.
I wish you much success in your future endeavors.
You most definitely have a future in journalism.
We all have one life to live and when we come to the end, we will answer to God in all his glory.
Matthew 25:23
His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’
“But perhaps the most personally illustrative example and final straw for me came when a professor whom I respected and viewed as having integrity and morals made it clear that she too had been compromised by the new extremist thought…Seeing the one person I admired and respected and hoped to emulate, debase herself and her integrity out of fear of being labeled as “racist” was the defining blow of my career hopes.”
@Mr. J. Mitchell Sances, I am sorry to say that your experience is far from unique. You should not judge your mentor too harshly. She saved herself for a little while; at least until the Marxists get around to coming for her for violating one of their woke rules. She merely avoided, albeit temporarily, the kind of despicable actions that the faculty in the Stanford University School of Education inflicted upon Robert L. Politzer, Professor of Education and Romance Linguistics at Stanford University, in the late 1980s. Intimidation and character assassination is where they start – psychological abuse – which leads to mental and physical trauma for their target; especially when the target fights back. Their goal is to replace their target with one of their own. The Marxists will not stop. This particular case was documented in a file that Stanford has kept closed – a great embarrassment to the university if ever made public:
“Psychological abuse”
“Form of abuse characterized by a person subjecting or exposing another to behavior that may result in psychological trauma. Psychological abuse, often called emotional abuse, is a form of abuse characterized by a person subjecting or exposing another person to a behavior that may result in psychological trauma, including anxiety, chronic depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder amongst other psychological problems. Wikipedia”
Instead of leaving academia entirely, maybe Mr. Sances should consider a college like Hillsdale College which is a private, conservative, Christian liberal arts college in Hillsdale, Michigan. It was founded in 1844 by members of the Free Will Baptists. Women were admitted to the college in 1844, making the college the second-oldest coeducational educational institution in the United States. Hillsdale’s required core curriculum includes courses on the Great Books, the U.S. Constitution, biology, chemistry, and physics. Hillsdale has declined government financial support, and instead, Hillsdale depends entirely on private donations to supplement students’ tuition.
Thank you for your validation of your ‘Catholic education”. Good to know there remains at least one successful model to learn from, even if one is not Catholic.
Berkeley was my alma mater – class of 1965. Put the blame on my class, this is its deadly harvest decades later. A mighty star has fallen.
1960’s – the corruption of the 1965 Free Speech Movement, which was never about free speech, only the demand to allow far leftist recruiting tables be set up on campus. And 1962 when JFK allowed government employees to unionize.
This 1960s’ era was not just sex, drugs and rock and roll. It was the birth of the student heckler’s veto, and the weaponization of “education” by the now power hungry and unionized academia. I wish we could turn back the clock. But we can’t. We can only scatter the ashes of what it was.
soon these state universities and colleges will be a costly 4-year vacation resort for a generation of mal-adjusted unaborted. For real academics our future will be in the hands of private schools for a higher education.
Private schools? Really? The Ivy League are all private schools. If you mean the likes of Hillsdale College or the University of Austin, then I will agree with you.
It is ironic that you are only reaching this decision now, after the pushback to DEI has begun. Ultimately, in order to take back some ground in academia, we are going to need some conservative folks with Ph.Ds to stay and do the work. Outing plagiarists and others infected with the woke attitudes will only make a difference if they are replaced with someone different/better. There are schools trying to build back a conservative presence in Florida and Texas for example…
But they can’t stay…especially when they aren’t even hired.
“The wildly unpopular [BIPARTISAN TEDDY KENEDY and] George W. Bush program has been criticized for focusing on the students with lower proficiencies and ignoring the needs of higher performing students allowing them to slip through the cracks in true collectivist fashion.”
As Ben Franklin said, “A half truth is often a great lie.”
1) Turned down a tenure track position in the 70s. Pay was low. More than 80% of the faculty was married to former students – realized what the true compensation package was.
2) Thought I would follow the path of Leopold Kronecker (make money in the private sector and return to academia).
3) 22 years later, although the entire department faculty signed a recommendation letter, was rejected by HR because of age and race. In the end, very glad they did.
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