From 2023 to 2024: a growing academic civil war

2023 is nearly done, for which many people are no doubt thankful. In several blog posts I’d like to look back at the year before it’s over to identify some trends which look likely to shape 2024.

Today’s topic is what I’ve been quietly calling an academic civil war. Political struggles within higher education loomed large and are likely to persist in 2024. Academia is also an object for external political struggle.

(By this term I mean to shock, appropriately, because we’ve seen some damage to academia over the past year, and we’d be wise to anticipate more in the next. I also intend the term to indicate complex, messy conflict playing out differently across the sector and beyond. Is the term too violent for the reality it seeks to describe? Oh, I certainly hope so. As someone who’s actually spent time in a real civil war (Bosnia and Croatia, 1995) I don’t want to overstate the term’s meaning here, although we’ve already suffered some violent deaths in political clashes (for example). But perhaps things will worsen. See below.)

To recap from 2023: struggles have occurred across numerous colleges and universities over diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. Off-campus, state and federal officials have played major roles in this fights, notably in legislative actions. Donors have also played a role. Some…