Going to college for many is a time to find themselves, and to learn more about what interests them. From engineering to politics, students have a variety of different educations they can pursue as well as numerous groups and clubs. During this time, many lifelong friendships are made, and opinions are formed. Since the 1970s, liberalism has found a welcome home in higher education institutions.
Even places like the University of Alabama (UA) have been unable to escape it. For earth sciences professor Matthew Wielicki, the increased pressure on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) has become too much. Taking to Twitter, he announced his departure from the Department of Geological Sciences, effective at the end of the spring 2023 semester. Calling himself a “classic liberal,” he explained that the DEI being forced down his throat as well as wanting more family time has led him to resign.
…to live far from family and I started to resent myself for choosing my career over my family's time together. Furthermore, over the last decade or so, but especially the last few years, the obsession with universities and grant-funding institutions…
— Dr. Matthew M. Wielicki (@MatthewWielicki) January 23, 2023
“Furthermore, over the last decade or so, but especially the last few years, the obsession with universities and grant-funding institutions on immutable characteristics of faculty and students and the push for equity in science above all else has dramatically changed the profession of an academic professor…The rise of illiberalism in the name of DEI is the antithesis of the principles that universities were founded on.”
His tweets indicate that he was only announcing this after others had searched him out and discovered he was leaving. Given his announcement that he had given up on the Ph.D. dreams he had as a youngster, it would seem the education system has left him more than soured at this point. He also noted changes in how his colleagues were teaching students.
“Contributing to this is the earth science communities silence on the false ‘climate emergency’ narrative. Members of the community routinely discuss the mental health effects of climate catastrophism but dare not speak out lest they lose their positions and research funds.” He went on to explain that college was “no longer places that embrace the freedom of exchanging ideas,” but rather a place to destroy alternative views in favor of a common message.
This kind of frustration is nothing new. If you speak to many college graduates, many are parroting the same viewpoints and ways of analyzing situations. They are no longer being shown how to freely think and apply solutions to problems. Rather they are being asked to do copycat work and all come to the same conclusions. While that may be fine for things like accounting, or basic science work, it does not fly in advanced courses. Those who are going for higher education should be learning independent thought. It is the cornerstone of our country.
Wielicki likely is one of many professors who have left or will soon leave higher education. The drain that having your free thought constrained, and college administrators forcing you and your students to all fit into the same box is exhausting. Especially as those begging most for DEI are the same ones telling you that you can only stretch your thoughts or beliefs to fit into their boxes.
It cannot go one way and not the other. Education is about the free flow and exchange of ideas, and good business follows the same footprint. Regardless of the industry, if everyone is always parroting back the same ideas and information, things become stagnant. Then you do not see the evolution and change of your industry, but rather the death of it.
Liberalism and its crooked way of trying to warp the mind of Americans is much like the actions of the Taliban in Afghanistan. You either go with them or they will destroy your family, your business, and anything they can get their hands on for you to comply. It is a great example of the age-old “Trust me. I’m with the government.”
