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Dear ACTA friend,
Since its founding, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) has advocated for strengthening civic education at America’s colleges and universities. Our democratic republic depends on an educated citizenry—the rising generation must have a robust understanding of our nation’s history and system of government.
Our country is facing a civic knowledge crisis, and with it, a crisis of civic order. ACTA’s recent survey, Losing America’s Memory 2.0, has brought to light some startling findings about the state of civic literacy among college students. Most students are unable to identify the speaker of the House of Representatives, term lengths for members of Congress, or the branch of government with the power to declare war.
It is unconscionable that so many students graduate college today without understanding their own system of government, especially in an age of rising polarization, falling social trust, increasing political violence, and decreasing feelings of political efficacy.
Our survey has drawn national media attention. In an article covering our findings, the New York Post wrote, “[colleges and universities] have abdicated the responsibility to inculcate even the most basic knowledge required to be an informed and engaged citizen.” On July 17, ACTA’s Paul & Karen Levy Fellow in Campus Freedom, Steven McGuire, was interviewed by Scripps News about the survey’s findings and the urgent need for universities to institute a required course in American history and government.
Over the next two years, leading up to the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, we are rolling out a series of programs to urge colleges and universities to strengthen civic education. I encourage you to explore our new webpage dedicated to civic literacy, which can be found here, and I look forward to updating you on our work.
Thank you for your support. Together, we can ensure that the next generation is equipped to carry forward the values that define our great nation.
Warm regards,
Michael Poliakoff
President
ACTA is an independent, non-profit organization committed to academic freedom, excellence, and accountability at America’s colleges and universities.
Gabe Levin
The Nation
Excerpt: Dr. Eric Cheyfitz, a professor of American studies at Cornell, said the university has canceled the two classes he was set to teach this semester. It comes as the provost is recommending that he be suspended for two semesters without pay on the grounds that he violated federal antidiscrimination laws, The Nation has learned.
Cheyfitz’s lawyer, Luna Droubi, said it’s the latest turn in months of investigations—carried out by different university bodies—into whether Cheyfitz, 84, told a graduate student last semester to drop a class he was teaching about Gaza because the student is Israeli. Cheyfitz, who is Jewish and whose daughter and grandchildren live in Israel, denies the allegation.
Sabrina Tavernise
New York Times
Excerpt: Two days after Charlie Kirk was killed, Suzanne Swierc, an employee at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., woke up to a cascade of missed calls, texts and voice mail messages from numbers she did not know.
Ms. Swierc (pronounced swirtz) discovered that the barrage stemmed from something she had posted on Facebook the day before: “If you think Charlie Kirk was a wonderful person, we can’t be friends.” Her Facebook settings were private, but one of her followers must have taken a screen shot and sent it on without her knowledge.
Henry F. Haidar
Harvard Crimson
Excerpt: Out of all the faculty The Crimson recently surveyed, only one percent described their political beliefs as very conservative. Think about that: someone is three times more likely to get into Harvard than to encounter a conservative faculty member here.
Much can be — and has been — said in favor of viewpoint diversity in higher education. Yet those decrying the relative lack of conservative faculty overlooks a basic point: The structure of universities themselves lends itself to a professoriate whose politics do not perfectly map on to that of the public writ large. That’s not necessarily a bad thing.
