Taking back power from the academic left depends on storming the public institutions, not fleeing from them.

For 50 years, conservatives have been complaining about the leftist capture of American higher education. It’s a real problem—trust me. Far less than a tenth of the faculty in most humanities and social sciences departments, as well as many professional schools and science fields, are conservatives. The syllabi and curricula are leftist ideology run wild. College campuses feel like Democratic Party summer camps. Students graduate without ever hearing the rational, evidence-based arguments of half our citizens. The odious Leninists of the faculty lounge tell them that Republicans are reactionaries and anti-intellectuals. 

I’ve done my share of complaining. Now, I am taking action. On February 29, Richard Corcoran, president of the New College of Florida, announced that I will be spending my sabbatical from my home institution in 2024–25 as Presidential Scholar at the college. It is the beginning of what I hope will be a long-term engagement.

While there have always been private institutions in the United States that offer intellectual diversity, New College is the first Reconquista of a publicly-funded venue.