United States | Conservatives on campus

A challenge to leftist bias moves into America’s public universities

Florida leads a push against prevailing progressivism

 Students walk through Turlington Plaza in the University of Florida campus
Hamiltonians at restPhotograph: Alamy
|Gainesville

In 1951 a 25-year-old Yale graduate published a 240-page polemic inveighing against his alma mater’s left-leaning bias. The book launched the career of William F. Buckley, the most influential conservative intellectual of the post-war era. Although Buckley managed to reshape the Republican Party, his war against academia proved less successful. Conservatives still haven’t given up on changing the academy. The most robust reform momentum now is building at public university systems. In Florida, in particular, a trio of Yale alumni have ambitious plans to change the future of higher education.

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This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “Conservatives on campus”

From the April 13th 2024 edition

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