The siege is actual. And if we lose this battle, we lose far more than the academy. We lose the ability to think freely, to challenge authority, and to tell the truth. In the end, that is what is at stake. Not just the future of universities—but the future of free thought itself.
Higher education in America is under siege. Not by the usual suspects—rising tuition, student debt, and bloated administrations, though those are real crises. The deeper battle is between qualified immunity and tenure, between the unchecked power of state officials and the last remaining institutional defense of free speech. It is a battle for the academy’s soul; if universities lose, the consequences will stretch far beyond campus walls.
The Fall of the Faculty: The Rise of the All-Administrative University and Why it Matters (2011)
It started with the corporatization of universities, and the centers of intellectual debate were handed over to the managerial class, people with no real stake in pursuing knowledge. This shift was first documented in The Rise of the Administrator, a book largely ignored outside academic circles because, let’s face it, most people who control university budgets aren’t in the business of self-reflection.
But even bloated bureaucracies could not kill off higher education entirely. That job has been left to a more insidious force: the legal and political war on free expression. Once, tenure protected scholars from political retaliation. The idea was simple: a professor, once granted tenure, could challenge authority, expose corruption, and push the boundaries of human knowledge without fear of being fired. But tenure is eroding. University presidents—now glorified corporate executives—are all too eager to cave to public outrage, donor pressure, or government directives.
On the other side of the equation? Qualified immunity is the legal doctrine that shields government officials from accountability. Police officers, bureaucrats, and university administrators can trample constitutional rights without consequence. A tenured professor who says something controversial? Fired. A bureaucrat who silences dissent? Protected. We have reached a point where tenure—the last legal safeguard of academic free speech—faces extinction, while government officials enjoy blanket immunity for violating constitutional rights.
This is not an accident. A well-educated populace is dangerous to authoritarians and corporate overlords alike. A professor’s ability to speak freely directly threatens the machinery of power. And so, with each passing year, tenure is chipped away, while those who silence dissent are rewarded.
It wasn’t always this way. The wealthy, historically, were patrons of the arts. They funded universities, endowed professorships, and supported public discourse—not out of altruism but because they understood that a thriving intellectual class was necessary for a functioning democracy.
No more. Today’s billionaires, from Jeff Bezos to Elon Musk, do not fund public discourse—they buy it. Bezos doesn’t patronize scholars; he owns The Washington Post. Musk isn’t supporting public debate; he’s using X (formerly Twitter) to shape it to his liking. Universities, once independent, now rely on corporate funding, and their research follows the money.
As a result, the public intellectual is extinct. The last true one was Christopher Hitchens, who has been dead for over a decade. There isn’t a Gore Vidal or Hunter S. Thompson. No one stood outside, throwing Molotov cocktails of truth at the powerful. We are left with a barren intellectual landscape where voices of dissent are either muted or bought off.
The last bastion of free speech is New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964). This Supreme Court decision protects journalists from frivolous defamation lawsuits when criticizing public figures. It is a thin thread holding up what remains of the Fourth Estate, and it rests in the hands of a Supreme Court that believes it can interpret the Constitution much like Joseph Smith interpreted scripture from the bottom of a hat.
If Sullivan falls, the ability to criticize the powerful will collapse. Universities have already been co-opted. The press is one of the last institutions capable of challenging authority. But billionaires are already testing the waters—Peter Thiel’s revenge-fueled destruction of *Gawker* was a preview. If the Supreme Court guts Sullivan, it won’t just be tabloid media at risk; it will be every journalist, every scholar, and every person who dares to tell the truth about those in power.
This is where we stand: Universities are no longer places of free inquiry. Tenure is under attack. The public intellectual is dead. And the last legal protection for dissent is in the hands of justices who have already shown they care little for precedent, logic, or basic democratic principles.
The siege is actual. And if we lose this battle, we lose far more than the academy. We lose the ability to think freely, to challenge authority, and to tell the truth. In the end, that is what is at stake. Not just the future of universities—but the future of free thought itself.
