Did the Profs Cry Uncle?

All of a sudden, according to
David Horowitz, it seems that the academic establishment has called for a peace
process in the academic freedom wars. For the last couple of years Horowitz has been campaigning for
universities to adopt his Academic Bill of Rights, a manifesto
“that would foster intellectual diversity, fairness and equity in higher education.”
For his pains, Horowitz has been “compared to McCarthyites, Maoists, and Orwellian thought police by some of [his] overheated opponents.”
But now

The American Council on Education and a coalition of 22 college and university
associations, including the American Association of University Professors (who had declared our
bill a “grave threat to academic freedom”) have issued a statement that endorses the central
principles of our bill
and represents a great step forward in the academic freedom struggle.

Is it real, or is it Memorex? Only time will tell, of course. But the safest thing to do is follow
the money. Universities are non-profit entities that collect money from students, foundations, corporations,
alumni, and government and then spend it. The ideal situation for a university administration is for
happy contributors to give money without strings attached so that the university can spend the money
as it thinks fit. Of course, this ideal situation never obtains. The university is always under
pressure from a variety of special interests that each applies pressure to the university to spend money in a way
that benefits the interest. The job of the university administrator is to judge where the
sweet spot lies that will maximize contributions with the minimum of pain. But the bottom line is:
he or she will do whatever it takes to keep the money flowing.