Academia Becomes More Ideological and More Coercive
Commentary
Universities as a community of autonomous scholars delving into knowledge and seeking to expand it is a model long out of date. With the explosive growth of university, scientific, and granting agency bureaucracies, coercive oversight and imposition has grown by magnitudes.
One example is mandatory research ethics tests for professors and students. These became popular in the 1970s and 1980s, as universities became more ideological. When research ethics reviews were first proposed at McGill University, my senior colleagues argued that this was not meant to be an imposition on faculty and students; it was a helpful opportunity for researchers to reflect on ethical responsibilities. But, of course, this non-imposition became an imposition once bureaucrats were appointed to administer and impose the requirement.