Shilpa Jindia didn’t mince words Sunday in comparing the present with a previous era.
“We’re in a new McCarthy era that even McCarthy couldn’t have fathomed,” she said.
The writer and lawyer presented “Why Ideas are Dangerous? The Fight for Academic Freedom on America’s Campuses” at the Monadnock Summer Lyceum Sunday at Peterborough Unitarian Universalist Church. She offered a theory as to why colleges such as Harvard and Columbia have been targets of the current administration.
“Universities are targets of the right because (President Donald) Trump seeks to reverse racial equality. America is not alone in this respect. Attacks on universities are part of the global playbook of authoritarianism.” Later, she suggested that individuals behind such efforts “seek to roll things back to when only white men had power.”
She acknowledged that campus protest in the wake of Hamas’ 2023 attack on Israel and the response prompted backlash from many corners.
“While the content of some of the speech (at these demonstrations) was uncomfortable for some, the response should not be to shut it down,” she said. Jindia also said it is “taboo to address the U.S. – Israel relationship,” and that “fear of the subject has led to a weaponization of the topic.”
Jindia characterized universities as “ruthless businesses,” and suggested that “Republicans and Democrats have had an equal hand in reducing the benefit of a college education.” She lamented how Columbia bowed to threats of losing federal funding by allowing several academic departments to be placed in external control. The Middle Eastern, South Asian and African studies departments were placed in receivership under the university’s administration, not of those departments’ faculty.
One member of the audience asked Jindia for advice to pass along to a son who has recently become diversity, equity and inclusion director at Brown, saying that he’d lost 10 pounds owing to stress, given how DEI programs have come under attack from the administration.
“That’s not an enviable job,” said Jindia. “Hopefully he will gain strength from this fight.”
To another question, she acknowledged that there were voices on the right that were shut down during discussions while she was at CUNY, but said that “All speech is free, but not equal. Speech must stand up for the rights of all.”
After the presentation, Jindia was asked about balance on campuses. Data cited by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg in a Harvard commencement address noted that 96% of 2012 political donations from Ivy league faculty and administrators went to the Democratic candidate, President Barack Obama.
“So what truths are making conservatives so uncomfortable on campus?” she asked. During her remarks, she said “‘Ideological diversity’ (0n campuses) is code for conservative thinking.”
Asked after the presentation about limiting other speech on campus, namely comedians such as Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock refusing to play college campuses due to students bristling over the perceived political incorrectness in their humor and students at the University of California, Berkeley demanding Bill Maher be uninvited to speak there, Jindia questioned the work of the performers.
“Maybe they’re not funny,” she said.
One attendee wondered “what a bunch of old people in Peterborough can do” about protecting academic freedom on campus.
“Share your own experiences with others, “ she said.
Monadnock Ledger-Transcript editor Bill Fonda was moderator for the event.
The next presentation is Dr. Annie Brewster, with “Stories for Health” July 20 at 11 a.m.