The Jan. 31 edition of the Economist tells a depressing story of the academy in peril. An instructor of an introductory philosophy course at Texas A&M University — one of America’s largest post-secondaries — faced reassignment unless he excluded Plato from his reading list; another professor at the same school was dismissed for discussing gender fluidity; and 200 courses are under administrative review for prohibited content. At the University of Texas at Austin, 40 per cent of faculty reported being pressured to make changes to their curricula, and the university’s faculty council, elected to advise the administration on academic matters, was dissolved last year.