Review of CAMPUS MISINFORMATION

Is there really a crisis of speech on college campuses?

Feb 21, 2023

Disclosure: I work as the Director of Communications for the organization Heterodox Academy (HxA), an organization, and its mission, that Vivian targets in his book, Campus Misinformation. The views expressed in this review are mine and do not necessarily reflect those of HxA.

For anyone who pays attention to higher education, you may know that many have been asking “what is happening” on today’s campuses, especially in the last decade. Higher education has become increasingly politicized, and in presidential elections, college education is the most dividing demographic variable indicating whether someone votes Democrat or Republican. And most recently, Florida has been making headlines as DeSantis attempts legislation to “correct” what has “happened” in higher education.

It's hard to deny that there is a “fuss” on college campuses today around concerns of viewpoint diversity and free speech, but how much of a problem is it? Is the problem really a problem, or has a mountain been made of a molehill? In Campus Misinformation: The Real Threat to Free Speech in American Higher Education, Bradford Vivian argues that the “agents of misinformation” have peddled a false free speech “crisis” using an “organized media campaign”. The problem with this, Vivian argues, is that the “agents of misinformation” are the real threat to free speech, and the result of the “misinformation campaign” is an anti-university sentiment that signals, and supports, rising authoritarianism in the US. The real problem isn’t bad campus culture stifling free speech, it’s Republicans looking to dismantle higher education.

I literally work for an organization that is working to improve campus culture by advocating for viewpoint diversity and open inquiry. So, you can probably imagine that I do not fully agree with Vivian. But, it is an interesting book, and one that I am glad to have read very carefully. That said, my overall assessment is that the book is trying to do too much, and by doing so, he undermines his own arguments in various ways. Although I could easily write several thousand words responding to each of Vivan’s primary claims, that’s not really the style of my book blog, so I will refrain… a bit.

I will start with things I think he gets right, albeit, broad strokes things. I think Vivian is right that there is a group of higher ed folks and pundits that have gone too extreme on the anti-DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) rhetoric, which has caused an over correction that is stifling speech and inquiry – a point that aligns with Vivian’s core thesis. The current anti-DEI legislation in Florida is a good case in point, and is a very real threat to academic freedom of faculty. He is also right that the vast majority of college campuses do not have media-headliner problems of mobs, shutdowns, and speech crises. There are thousands of higher ed institutions in the US, but it’s mostly the state flagship universities and the elite schools that get most of the attention, and have most of the speech problems.

That said, just because the majority of campuses are not dealing with very real threats to free speech, open inquiry, and academic freedom, that should not lead to Vivian’s conclusion that this is a problem that does not need to be addressed. It’s faulty logic.

This type of faulty logic and hypocrisy is evident throughout the book, which consistently undermines his arguments. He argues that the “agents of misinformation” and their “media campaigns” utilize “military” terminology that creates a false sense of crisis, while using the same linguistic approach himself in every chapter. He asserts that “agents of misinformation” cherry-pick anecdotes of incidents to overgeneralize, while devoting an entire chapter to campus speaker shutdowns in only 2017-18 as an “example” of “misinformation” about the fact that this regularly happens, year after year. He also cherry-picks only a couple of research articles on the uselessness of trigger-warnings while ignoring all the rigorous research that has come out in the last couple of years, despite this being a brand new book. Most of his arguments are illogical, hypocritical, and therefore, weak.

Finally, a core issue I have with Vivian’s approach in his book is conflating related, but distinct, concepts and terms. For those on the “outside” of the academy these distinctions may not mean much, but as an expert insider writing a book on this topic, not knowing the difference between viewpoint diversity, free speech, and academic freedom does no favors for one’s argument. Viewpoint diversity (which he also uses interchangeably with viewpoint parity when it suits him) is a value and norm; free speech is a constitutional right; and academic freedom is a functional right embedded within the institution of higher education. The book tries to do too much by not addressing each of these properly, and thus lumps them all together across the book and undermines his thesis.

Overall, this is an interesting book to read, but is probably too niche for most people if you don’t follow this news stream or have a stake in higher ed. It’s written well in that it is easy to read, but as someone who knows this space intimately, it was an incredibly frustrating read.

Published: December 2022

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Format: Hardcover