By Staff Reporter
Those who dare impinge on the intellectual autonomy traditionally enjoyed by academic institutions will stir up a hornet’s nest of opposition by students, faculty and engaged citizens who care about the life of the mind. In a democracy, to have politicians (politicians, for the love of God!) sticking their noses into the affairs of a university, the emblematic marketplace of ideas, is a non-starter.
“If we want to resist the power which threatens to suppress intellectual and individual freedom”, wrote Albert Einstein in “Essays on Humanism” (1950), in which he shared with readers his social philosophy and views on everyday life, “we must keep clearly before us what is at stake” And what is at stake, the most influential scientist of all time claimed, is “[W]hat we owe to that freedom which our ancestors have won for us after hard struggles to achieve it”.
