Academia has become a 'cancer' on American society and must be reformed, professor says
'While we let it continue we are financing our own destruction as a society,' John Ellis wrote
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}College campuses have become a "cancer" on American society, breeding anti-American radicalism, and the only way forward is to get the left-wing activists out of the classroom, a retired California professor argued in the Wall Street Journal Tuesday.
"Never have college campuses exerted so great or so destructive an influence. Once an indispensable support of our advanced society, academia has become a cancer metastasizing through its vital organs. The radical left is the cause, most obviously through the one-party campuses having graduated an entire generation of young Americans indoctrinated with their ideas," John Ellis wrote in his opinion piece.
Ellis, professor emeritus of German literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz, laid out the various ways he believes colleges have become a "destructive" force on society, from prioritizing social justice over academic achievement, censoring conservative voices, portraying criminals as victims, and driving a wedge between parents and children with attacks on the nuclear family.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Open border policies and radical philosophies promoting "anticolonialism," "anticapitalism" and "intersectionality," have also breeded anti-American attitudes and antisemitism on campus that has cropped up in the wake of the October 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel, he argued.
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Campus antisemitism grew out of ideologies like "anticolonialism," "anticapitalism" and "intersectionality," Professor emeritus John Ellis wrote in the WSJ. (Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)
Academia has become a "threat" to American society, because of these fringe, political activists, the professor argued. The only way to turn things around is to "take back control of higher education from cultural vandals who have learned nothing from the disastrous history of societies that have implemented their ideas."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"[E]ffective reform means only one thing: getting those political activists out of the classrooms and replacing them with academic thinkers and teachers. (No, that isn’t the same as replacing left with right.)," Ellis proposed.
"Nothing less will do. Political activists have been converting money intended for higher education to an unauthorized use—advancing their goal of transforming America. That is tantamount to embezzlement. While we let it continue we are financing our own destruction as a society," he added.
Ellis urged lawmakers to get involved in turning the tide, arguing they can help reform campuses by requiring state schools to install new campus leadership who must replace professors who are "violating the terms of their employment" by putting activism above education. He noted that reform is already happening in some red states like Florida, Texas and North Carolina.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The professor called on the public to change their behavior and attitudes toward viewing college as the automatic next step for every young adult out of high school.
"If enough parents and students gave serious thought to the question whether this ridiculous version of a college education is still worth four years of a young person’s life and tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, corrupt institutions of higher education would collapse, creating the space for better ones to arise," he suggested.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Campus leaders and Jewish voices are sounding the alarm on antisemitism at U.S. colleges following Hamas' terrorist attack against Israeli civilians. (Photo by Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via Getty Images/Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)
Ellis said that while politicians worry about climate change and foreign adversaries, the "biggest threat" to America's future is within.
"It is the tyrannical grip that a hopelessly corrupt higher education now has on our national life. If we don’t stop it now, it will eventually destroy the most successful society in world history," he warned.
Some parents and students are reconsidering their higher education plans because of the surge of antisemitism on college campuses, Fox News Digital previously reported.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"This problem stems from the top of a university," Jennifer Brozost, co-founder of the Private Education Advisory Service, told Fox News. "These kind of protests and hateful actions and violence would not be happening on college campuses if they were not allowed to be."
"Parents and kids are taking note, and they're watching," she added.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fox News' Hannah Ray Lambert contributed to this report.