Stanley Fish, Divestment, and "The Student Assault on the Academy"

National Association of Scholars

Stanley Fish, an early critic of NAS, recently published a piece on the campus divestment movement in the Huffington Post titled, "Divesting from Fossil Fuels: The Student Assault on the Academy." He advocates a non-political university, one that is a bastion of academic freedom removed from the political scrum. His return to the topic was in part prompted by our latest report, Inside Divestment: The Illiberal Movement to Turn a Generation Against Fossil FuelsThe campus divestment movement is but one of many battlegrounds over the university's purpose. Fish writes,

Now, shaming the fossil fuel industry might very well be a good thing to do (I am not going to pronounce on the substantive question), but it is not an academically good thing to do. [...] Saving the world from fossil fuels is not a pedagogical goal and doesn't belong either in the classroom or in the mission statement of a university.

It is encouraging for NAS, an organization dedicated to fair, open, rigorous debate, to share a common goal with one of its former detractors. Earlier this year, Fish offered praise for NAS's previous report on sustainability (2015), commending its "comprehensiveness, clarity and tone," as well as its detail and respect for those "on the other side."  

Read what others have to say about Inside Divestment >

  • Share

Most Commented

September 6, 2024

1.

Professor Alleges "Widespread" Discriminatory Hiring Coverup at University of Washington

Audio acquired by the National Association of Scholars describes allegations of coverup race-based hiring coverup at the University of Washington...

October 29, 2024

2.

The Looming Irrelevance of Middle East Study Centers

Today’s Middle Eastern Studies Centers are facing a crisis due to the winds of change in the Middle East and their own ideological echo chamber....

September 25, 2024

3.

NAS Statement on University of Pennsylvania Sanction of Amy Wax

The National Association of Scholars is outraged—but not surprised—by Penn's decision to penalize Wax for exercising her academic freedom. ...

Most Read

May 15, 2015

1.

Where Did We Get the Idea That Only White People Can Be Racist?

A look at the double standard that has arisen regarding racism, illustrated recently by the reaction to a black professor's biased comments on Twitter....

October 12, 2010

2.

Ask a Scholar: What is the True Definition of Latino?

What does it mean to be Latino? Are only Latin American people Latino, or does the term apply to anyone whose language derived from Latin?...

September 21, 2010

3.

Ask a Scholar: What Does YHWH Elohim Mean?

A reader asks, "If Elohim refers to multiple 'gods,' then Yhwh Elohim really means Lord of Gods...the one of many, right?" A Hebrew expert answers....