“The Bowdoin Project” is not without insight about some of the contradictions and shortcomings one finds, not just at Bowdoin, but at most other contemporary liberal arts colleges and universities, as well. Unfortunately, the report’s value is nearly buried by its unrelenting drumbeat for what its authors dare to claim is nothing less than the unvarnished truth, in contrast to the progressive ideology they identify with Bowdoin.
The problem, at least as I read it, is that their purported “truth” is itself an unarticulated ideology that underlies everything they say, yet it is by no means self-evident: that the privileged, white, heterosexual, Christian, American male represents the apotheosis of human civilization, and movement in the academy away from that notion represents a sharp decline in the quality of education.
Why else would there be such outrage at goals like diversity and global citizenship? (Perhaps inherent in that point of view is the dearth in the report of an ounce of humility, though the authors are quick to note its lack at Bowdoin.)
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