A new study showed most faculty members at Wisconsin universities and across the country have serious concerns about the consequences of holding and expressing political viewpoints.
The study from Brandeis University aimed to understand what faculty thought about specific political issues and how they taught about them.
Graham Wright, associate research scientist in the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University, said they found many hot-button topics rarely come up in classroom settings.
"Less than 10% of the faculty we spoke to reported actively teaching about Israel-Palestine," Wright reported. "And for three quarters of them, it just never came up at all, despite all the discourse about these issues."
He pointed out despite faculty being spoken of as activists, only about 20% of faculty included in the study engaged in any form of political activism or social media posting about current politically contentious topics.
The Trump administration is targeting U.S. universities with intense focus on antisemitism and diversity viewpoints. Some campuses, including the University of Wisconsin-Madison, have faced federal investigations. Others experienced fines and funding cuts.
Leonard Saxe, professor of contemporary Jewish studies and social policy at Brandeis University, said the research suggests the broad measures often affect faculty who aren't contributing to any perceived problems.
"What goes on, on college campuses is very important," Saxe stressed. "It's now the focus of a debate that oftentimes seems unhinged where you have the attention being focused on a small number of people, then generalizing it to all campuses."
Saxe argued faculty should be viewed as allies and he is concerned the future of higher education is at stake. He emphasized there are significant implications for national advancement in technology, health care and social issues.
"One of my fears is that, rather than the efforts to promote viewpoint diversity, promoting actual viewpoint diversity, it potentially is doing just the opposite," Saxe warned.
He added it suggests to students and faculty there is one way of doing things, and he believes it is not the academic way. Despite the lack of faculty initiation, the majority of those in the study said they are open to students expressing alternative viewpoints in the classroom.
