Trump is infamously anti-intellectual—“The experts are terrible (c.2016)”. So, there is good reason to fear ulterior motives to Trump’s push for “free speech” in American universities. Trump could just use it to arm-twist campuses into fostering his brand of divisive, anti-intellectual politics and generating “research-based” opinion to support his political stands.
What is happening at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should offer a clue. The deadly effect of vehicular and industrial pollution on human health has been a matter of scientific consensus for over three decades. But, the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (Casac), which advises EPA on air-quality standards, and more particularly its chair, Tony Cox, has called this “unverifiable opinions”—despite the mammoth body of research—as the EPA rushes to revise the national air quality standards.
Trump-pick Scott Pruitt, as the EPA administrator, shifted the deadline for the revision from 2022 to 2020, severely straining the normal review process—a scientific advisory committee parallel to Casac has also been dismantled. Now, Casac wants EPA scientists to assess “all relevant studies”, including some by Cox, a statistician and a sceptic of the scientific evidence on pollutants’ effect on health. Some of Cox’s studies were funded by industry groups who stand to be impacted by stricter environmental standards. The “free speech” condition could just become a club to batter universities into giving up research independence, and create more Coxes.