What follows is a review of Christopher L. Eisgruber’s book Terms of Respect: How Colleges Get Free Speech Right. Written for PFS in five parts by Tal Fortgang from the class of 2017, this review represents by far the most comprehensive analysis of Eisgruber’s book to date. In Part I, Fortgang offers what President Eisgruber gets right. In parts 2 - 5 he digs in, challenging assumptions, clarifying evasions, and raising key questions that Eisgruber has avoided answering. This book comes at a critical moment in the history of higher education. University presidents are worried about what has happened on their watch: a cratering of public trust; a shift among faculty towards ideological conformity, a growth of activist administrations, a rise in self-censorship and mental health problems among students. Eisgruber’s legacy will be determined by how this crisis plays out. We welcome our readers to take a deep dive.
We now assess Eisgruber’s peculiar take on the relation of the university to the nation that has treated it with increasing hostility in recent decades. Critics may wail that the universities have to be brought to heel for producing fanatics, snowflakes, and crybullies, but Eisgruber turns their argument…
