Readers React: Progressive enlightenment or liberal groupthink on college campuses?

To the editor: Per one letter writer, the fact that our universities have become arenas of indoctrination (rather than caldrons of opinions where diversity of thought is respected and nurtured) is tolerable because it balances out the existence of Fox News and conservative donors. He states that “critical thinking,” when applied to the “social problems” of today, will of necessity “yield answers of a progressive hue.” (“Whose fault is it that few conservatives are in college classrooms?” Readers React, March 24)

I would suggest, however, that the reign of political correctness at our universities; the threats against certain lecturers and speakers (at a university that truly tolerates diversity of opinion, Ann Coulter would not need to hire bodyguards to appear there); the withdrawal of invitations to “controversial” speakers (such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali at Brandeis University); the ad hominem attacks against those who, for example, express skepticism of the human effect on climate, indicate the predominance of groupthink at our universities rather than any form of critical thinking.

Edward S. Reisman, Santa Monica

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