iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Ken Schultz @kschultz.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

As an addendum to the discussion of institutional neutrality clause in the Vanderbilt statement, I want to call out this passage. If I'm not mistaken, it articulates a political ideology and theory of social change before saying that universities cannot have such things.

To ensure this enduring success, American universities need to be firmly committed to their core purpose: the cultivation of a free and self-governing republic by the creation, preservation, and dissemination of knowledge through reason, argument, and evidence, rooted in the pursuit of truth and discovery at the frontiers of human knowledge and in a university culture of free inquiry, wide-ranging debate, and academic excellence.

If faculty and students seek to pursue the truth wherever it lies, a university cannot have a political ideology or pursue a particular vision of social change.

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Ken Schultz @kschultz.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

To be clear, I agree with that ideology. But the idea that a free republic is the best form of government and that arguments should be based on reason and evidence have been contested historically, are not accepted universally, and face opposition in the US today. They are not politically neutral.

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