Maintaining the Boundary Between Politics and Academia

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A lecturer at Stanford subjected Jewish students to humiliation in the classroom by asking them to stand based on their identity, blurring the line between politics and academia. This divisive behavior and the utilization of the academia for political purposes violates fundamental norms. It is crucial to uphold the clear distinction between politics and academic life as emphasized by Max Weber, as allowing activist professors to engage in politics in the classroom undermines the core functioning of a university.

How can we create a radically different atmosphere at American universities? Easy, says historian Niall Ferguson of Stanford University's Hoover Institution--have meaningful rules about free speech, and ensure that they're upheld. As with humans, as with institutions: It's all about incentives. Ferguson discusses the current state of free speech on American campuses and how the new University of Austin when it opens hopes to safeguard freedom of speech. The conversation shifts then to the war in the Middle East. Ferguson draws on his work on the biography of Henry Kissinger and compares the present moment for Israel to the Yom Kippur War and the role Kissinger played in 1973.