https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2018/06/universities-banishment-truth/
ANU’s rejection of the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation has made it, in the words of one commentator, ‘a laughingstock’. To that appraisal add a toxic and shameless hypocrisy which sees that university and others eagerly accept cash for ‘Islamic centres’ where Western ideals are actively opposed.
You may have heard of the decision by the Australian National University to buckle under pressure from some academics to pull out of negotiations with a wealthy private donor, the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation, over funding for a scholarship and teaching program in studies of Western Civilisation. Vice-chancellor Brian Schmidt announced the ANU is withdrawing from negotiations on the grounds of academic freedom, despite no attempts to have such freedom limited by the Ramsay Centre.
Curiously, the university’s own website makes it clear that the Ramsay negotiators were not desiring an undue level of influence over delivery of the programs.[1] On April 30, 2018, the website of the ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences was indicating the university would be in control in any deal with the Ramsay Centre. Apparently this was not nearly good enough for these university academics. As law professor and Quadrant contributor James Allan puts it, Australian academics, especially in the Arts and Social Sciences, ‘lean massively to the left side of politics’ and so they have developed a sort of anti-intellectual hatred for anything that can potentially contribute to a better understanding of Western culture and values. As Professor Allan explains,
The complaining academics to which [the ANU’s Vice Chancellor] succumbed were afraid they would not have autonomy when it came to appointments. But if the Ramsay Centre gave them full autonomy they would pick near on wall-to-wall lefties, and that would result in teaching students quite a different account of Western civilisation than the donor intended. Mr Ramsay, like me, saw Western civilisation (warts and all) as having created the best place for humans to live ever. That goes doubly for women and minorities. You don’t have to sacrifice academic scholarship in the slightest to prefer a degree program that overall was supportive of Western civilisation’s many virtues and on balance scored comparatively best in the field grades”.[2]