Charlie Kirk on Reclaiming Academia: Why Building New Institutions May Be the Only Path Forward

The Question of Saving Academia

When asked about the best route to take academia back, Charlie Kirk offers a sobering assessment: he's not convinced it's possible in certain areas. His position is that the focus should shift toward building new colleges and new institutions rather than attempting to salvage what already exists.

Kirk's concern centers on how certain ideologies have spread far beyond their traditional boundaries. What began in the humanities has now infiltrated the social sciences, and perhaps most alarmingly, is making inroads into engineering and mathematics—disciplines that many assumed would remain immune to such ideological capture.

The College Scam and Higher Education's Place

Kirk acknowledges his skepticism about the current state of higher education, having written an entire book titled "The College Scam" on the subject. Despite this critical stance, he maintains that there is a legitimate place for higher education when done properly.

His perspective has been shaped by frequent visits to Hillsdale College, which he describes as America's greatest college. These visits have shown him a stark contrast between what education could be and what it has become at most institutions.

What Excellent Education Looks Like

At Hillsdale College, Kirk has sat in on classes that exemplify classical education. Students engage with foundational texts and thinkers:

• Aristotle's Ethics
• Augustine's works
• Aquinas's Summa Theologica
• The philosophical foundations of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle
• Discussions on why Western Civilization represents the greatest experiment in self-government in human history

This approach to education emphasizes dialogue, discussion, and engagement with great books—a model Kirk finds both effective and inspiring. He challenges his audience to consider how much time they've actually spent studying these foundational thinkers, suggesting that for most people, it amounts to perhaps a week, a month, or at most a semester.

The Contemporary Academic Diet

Kirk contrasts this classical approach with what he sees as the current reality on most university campuses. Instead of foundational Western texts, students receive what he describes as "a steady diet" of contemporary critical theorists and authors:

• Robin DiAngelo
• Ibram X. Kendi
• Jean Stefancic
• Introduction to Critical Race Theory
• Herbert Marcuse
• Michel Foucault
• Jacques Derrida
• Postmodernism and post-structuralism

While Kirk acknowledges these ideas could be entertained briefly in academic settings, he argues that building an entire worldview around them is problematic. In his view, fully implementing such ideologies leads to destructive outcomes.

The Path Forward

Kirk's solution is straightforward: rather than attempting to reclaim institutions that may be beyond saving, the focus should be on supporting good institutions that already exist and building new ones from the ground up. This represents a strategic shift from reformation to creation, acknowledging that some battles for institutional change may not be winnable while the need for quality education remains urgent.