Lessons on How to Fix Academia

Plus Washington, DC meetup and last chance to take the survey

First of all, thanks to everyone who has taken the Richard Hanania Newsletter survey. I have about a 9% response rate so far. I was aiming for 10% in my head because that’s what Razib told me he got, and since I have just over 10,000 subscribers it would also get me past 1,000, a nice even number. So please take the survey, and help me meet these goals I arbitrarily created in my head (here’s the previous post). (UPDATE: Someone asked whether they should go back and take the survey again to answer the new questions. Definitely do not do that. Only take the survey now if you haven’t taken the survey before.)

There is actually though a more substantive reason I want more people to take the survey, and it’s that I couldn’t help myself and kept adding questions to the part where respondents are asked to rate various things. Since I didn’t include some of the prompts until very late in the process, they in a handful of cases only have a few dozen responses. I’d like to get a decent number for everything on the list, especially since I added what I think will be some very controversial individuals and statements.

I’ll keep the survey open until two weeks from today and close it on August 1, at which point I’ll start writing up the results soon after.

In personal news, I’ll be in Washington, DC, Wednesday and Thursday evenings this week for those who would like to meet. Best way to get in contact is, surprisingly enough, Twitter DMs. I may have a happy hour or something and invite all who would like to join. Follow me on Twitter for real time updates on this.

I’m also going to take this opportunity to plug my conversation on the CSPI podcast with Richard Lowery from The University of Texas at Austin. He was part of an effort to try and build a new institution within his university with the help of private philanthropists and state legislators sympathetic to the idea that something needed to be done about the far left takeover of academia. How exactly that effort failed is a fascinating story, and has potential lessons for anyone who is interested in finding solutions to what has gone wrong with American intellectual life. If you’re a a politician, an activist, or potential donor, the conversation provides guidance regarding concrete steps one can take going forward.

You can just tell this guy opposes leftism in his soul. Join him.