Campus wokeness ending as students demand debate, says Tufts professor

A Tufts University professor says the era of peak campus “wokeness” may be fading, arguing that a new crop of students is rejecting performative politics and demanding serious debate in the classroom.

Eitan Hersh wrote in a Boston Globe op-ed on Thursday that a new “microgeneration” of undergraduates is pushing back against language policing and ideological grandstanding. He said the shift presents an opportunity to restore free speech and viewpoint diversity on the nation’s campuses.

“In this emerging microgeneration, our brightest students do not want to be the illiberal, woke caricature. It’s cringy and embarrassing,” Hersh wrote.

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“They want to be smart, mature, and able to hold their own in difficult conversations,” he added.

Public confidence in the nation’s educational institutions remains low. A September 2023 Gallup poll found that only 35 percent of Americans consider a college education “very important,” down from 2019.

Hersh argued that campus culture changes as each four-year class moves through. He pointed to the 2023-2024 Israel-Hamas protests, noting many current students were not on campus during those events.

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Students set up encampments on campuses nationwide, urging universities to divest from Israeli companies. Law enforcement made hundreds of arrests at schools, including ivy-league Columbia University and UCLA.

Hersh recalled that several years ago, a student repeatedly interrupted his lecture for using the term “Latino” instead of “Latinx.” He wrote that classroom discussions at the time often devolved into “political speechification.”

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He added that among the latest generation of students, that kind of behavior would get “more eye rolls than snaps.” Hersh said universities are trying to address concerns about viewpoint diversity by hiring new faculty and revising policies.

“That means we need to encourage today’s more open-minded students to help set the culture right: To be defenders of the truth and operate with decorum,” Hersh said.

Hersh said he has been asked to lead new initiatives through the Center for Expanding Viewpoints in Higher Education. He also urged students to help their school communities head in the right direction, saying they have “tremendous power here.”