Rose Bialk/The Mossy Log
In recent times, the purpose of a college education has become an existential question within our culture. Is it meant to impart marketable skills upon the next generation of workers? Or is it meant to encourage the development of young minds, allowing exploration of one’s own values and beliefs in a non-quantifiable way? I would argue that the latter is the true value of education. Though we live in a world that emphasizes productivity above all else, our cultural attitudes are misguided — there is still merit in thinking creatively and letting the ideas of the world shape the person you are becoming. Ultimately, college should be a place to encourage the blossoming of a young mind.
Unfortunately, this ideal does not match our current reality — we now see a concerning trend of conservative members of the older generations lashing out at college professors over essential elements of their work. I see a landscape where books are banned, DEI programs are defunded and entire fields of education are devalued. College, in my view, should never be a place where parents send their children to reinforce their own beliefs. Instead it should be an ideological battleground: a place where we confront our own ideals and see the world that exists beyond us.
One recent example of this phenomenon came out of College Station, Texas in early January. Just days before the spring semester began, faculty at Texas A&M University reported that they had been informed of a new institution policy that limited discussions on race and gender in the classroom, restricting their ability to instruct certain courses. The Texas Tribune received emails showing evidence that courses had been cancelled or significantly altered to accommodate this policy. One professor of philosophy, Martin Peterson, was told to remove Plato’s Symposium from his syllabus to comply with a rule banning “race and gender ideology.”
This policy came in response to a student’s secret recording of a discussion of a children’s literature class during the summer of 2025, where a book about a nonbinary student was being taught. That recording went viral on social media, leading to the cancellation of the class and ultimately to the termination of the professor in fall of 2025. While conservative politicians celebrated this action as a win in the war against DEI initiatives, it stands out to me as yet another symbol of the dissolution of our academic systems in a nation that is increasingly shifting toward fascist policing of thought and information.
A driving force behind this is the increasing profitability of the political ragebait landscape. Conservative organizations like TurningPointUSA, Prager University and The Daily Wire capitalize on the alienation that is often felt within a society where huge class divides and corporate influences rule every sector of life. People who are experiencing the consequences of corporatocracy — a system where powerful corporations and financial institutions wield disproportionate influence over government policy — are facing systems which are too complex to navigate without sufficient education. The political ragebait ecosystem ironically capitalizes off of this, offering an easy solution to their problems through calling for the sacrifice of a socially constructed scapegoat.
Why is our current educational system so expensive, the people ask? Pundits answer that it is because it is an elite, hegemonically liberal institution that will not materially benefit you. Why are gender and race topics so discussed in college settings? Because DEI initiatives are meant to undermine the societal order and take your power away from you, obviously. This logic allows these social influencers — many of whom receive funding from billionaire ideologues to farm outrage, solicit donations and deploy their armies of fans — to continue to spread their “anti-woke” agenda.
However, this current breakdown of the sanctity of learning is not something to be taken lightly. The First Amendment protects public educational institutions from having to remove material simply on the grounds that makes specific people uncomfortable. Education is not a system to reinforce what one already believes to be true. It is an opportunity to be presented with every kind of viewpoint and to build your own conclusions as you understand how to express them. Professors should be allowed to teach about “ideologies” that are considered too subversive. If that sanctity fails, who is to say that our future thinkers will be able to lead us effectively? If we are prevented from learning about the world we live in, how will we be able to make it a better place?
There is certainly a point to be made about the ways in which we at a private institution like Lewis & Clark experience or do not experience this state-sanctioned censorship. We are not subjected to the same standards that a state school would be, but there is still merit in exploring how we can react to this situation and how our own education can encourage societal changes. Professors can continue to teach subversive classes and encourage critical thinking that we as students can pass on in the future. There is also a clear positive impact that classroom discussion of non-traditional ideologies can have on students.
I know from personal experience that classes on subversive ideologies have made me a better writer and a more effective critical thinker. I have taken classes on American history from critical perspectives, and through these courses and others I have been able to explore the history of constructions of race, gender, class and how the world we live in today came to be. Classes like these had me considering how my own experiences were the culmination of decades of institutionalized racism and homophobia. They had me discussing in depth with others the way that I have experienced and perpetuated harmful stereotypes. They had me reconsidering who I was, and how I wanted to show up in my community. This kind of teaching and thinking has expanded the way that I think about how I interact with others, and ultimately, had a very positive impact on my life.
I want these kinds of life-changing experiences in the classroom to be something that anyone can access. No matter who they are, where they were raised or what beliefs they hold, students should be able to access the full breadth of knowledge that a professor can provide. It is true that there are institutional challenges to achieving that goal — a college education is incredibly expensive and becoming increasingly less of a guarantee for a place in the job market. Though I believe that we must confront these problems as well, the classroom must remain an open setting unencumbered by the fear of political repression as we do so.
Words should be spoken without fear that a student will record them and send them to a Republican senator in an attempt to remove professors from their positions. Sources should be placed on the syllabus for their relevance to the course, rather than removed because of their subversive nature. Classes should be taught on the history of oppression and constructions of societal beliefs without backlash that results in universities removing classes and shutting down programs. If these things are not done, we risk losing the chance to undo the damage done to our country by conservative elites who are afraid to lose their power.
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