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On Leadership

How One College President Confronts ‘The Biases of the Professoriate’

On Leadership: Michael S. Roth

By Alexander C. Kafka January 5, 2018
Michael S Roth
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The outspoken intellectual historian discusses what he’s proud of and the challenges that remain in his work at Wesleyan. Under his presidency, the university has created interdisciplinary colleges, breaking through department barriers. It has raised close to half a billion dollars, using much of it for more than 100 new endowed scholarships. Mr. Roth has promoted diversity on campus, increasing the percentages of low-income students and ethnic and racial minorities, and championing them, as well as women, particularly in the sciences. Together with the Posse Foundation, Wesleyan has also enrolled more than 30 military veterans. And that, Roth says, enhances a broader goal of greater intellectual diversity. He has been criticized for advocating “affirmative action” for other viewpoints, but free speech in only a narrowly defined intellectual space isn’t really free, he argues. For a college, Mr. Roth says, the bottom line is whether students feel free to thoughtfully speak their minds without self-censoring.

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Michael S Roth
Play Now

The outspoken intellectual historian discusses what he’s proud of and the challenges that remain in his work at Wesleyan. Under his presidency, the university has created interdisciplinary colleges, breaking through department barriers. It has raised close to half a billion dollars, using much of it for more than 100 new endowed scholarships. Mr. Roth has promoted diversity on campus, increasing the percentages of low-income students and ethnic and racial minorities, and championing them, as well as women, particularly in the sciences. Together with the Posse Foundation, Wesleyan has also enrolled more than 30 military veterans. And that, Roth says, enhances a broader goal of greater intellectual diversity. He has been criticized for advocating “affirmative action” for other viewpoints, but free speech in only a narrowly defined intellectual space isn’t really free, he argues. For a college, Mr. Roth says, the bottom line is whether students feel free to thoughtfully speak their minds without self-censoring.

Alexander C. Kafka is a senior editor and oversees Idea Lab. Follow him on Twitter @AlexanderKafka, or email him at alexander.kafka@chronicle.com.

Read other items in On Leadership.
We welcome your thoughts and questions about this article. Please email the editors or submit a letter for publication.
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Leadership & Governance Free Speech
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About the Author
Alexander C. Kafka
Alexander C. Kafka is a Chronicle senior editor. Email him at alexander.kafka@chronicle.com.

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