Peter Berkowitz, a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institute, recently had a piece in the Wall Street Journal entitled “Climategate Was an Academic Disaster Waiting to Happen.” In his piece, he explains why ordeals such as the recent Climategate scandal should not be surprising to anyone due to today’s unfortunate state of affairs at our nation’s public universities.
The piece sheds light on an issue often overlooked or understated, and that is the impact university affairs have on everyday political and business issues. Research published by university intellectuals, though mostly incredibly specialized, sometimes has far reaching effects. Climategate is a perfect example.
Berkowitz lays out the problem quite succinctly when he states that “…our universities, which above all should be cultivating intellectual virtue, are in their day-to-day operations fostering the opposite. Fashionable ideas, the convenience of professors, and the bureaucratic structures of academic life combine to encourage students and faculty alike to defend arguments for which they lack vital information. They pretend to knowledge they don’t possess and invoke the authority of rank and status instead of reasoned debate.”
Unfortunately, this dishonest trend shows no sign of slowing down. Until a strong coalition of brave university intellectuals are willing to risk their careers for the sake of true intellectual honesty, expect more scandals like Climategate.
– Elizabeth Young