Michael S Roth
@msroth.bsky.social
President of Wesleyan University. (grand)father, husband, author, professor. Defender of academic freedom, liberal education and democracy.
"If we are to have any hope that good ideas will win and bad ideas will lose, we need a wider range of viewpoints… viewpoint diversity is valuable because it disrupts the greatest..enemy of free inquiry, orthodoxy, which intimidates dissenters into silence" www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...
October 29, 2025 at 1:12 PM
"If we are to have any hope that good ideas will win and bad ideas will lose, we need a wider range of viewpoints… viewpoint diversity is valuable because it disrupts the greatest..enemy of free inquiry, orthodoxy, which intimidates dissenters into silence" www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...
"What is at stake in the recent conflicts between the current...administration &institutional efforts to protect the autonomy to shape their own curricula? In our case, nothing less than our nation’s most dearly held values, including religious freedom" www.americamagazine.org/faith-and-re...
September 6, 2025 at 9:04 PM
"What is at stake in the recent conflicts between the current...administration &institutional efforts to protect the autonomy to shape their own curricula? In our case, nothing less than our nation’s most dearly held values, including religious freedom" www.americamagazine.org/faith-and-re...
Read Prof Igor Mazin www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...
August 7, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Read Prof Igor Mazin www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...
My thoughts on Gaza and Jewish traditions in TIME magazine this morning. time.com/7307712/jewi...
August 6, 2025 at 4:28 PM
My thoughts on Gaza and Jewish traditions in TIME magazine this morning. time.com/7307712/jewi...
Emily Bazelon: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/05/o...
August 5, 2025 at 12:27 PM
Emily Bazelon: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/05/o...
American democracy today: It also represents an expansion of presidential power, allowing Mr. Trump to functionally eliminate a government department created by Congress, without legislators’ input…The order by the court was unsigned and gave no reasoning" www.nytimes.com/2025/07/14/u...
July 14, 2025 at 8:28 PM
American democracy today: It also represents an expansion of presidential power, allowing Mr. Trump to functionally eliminate a government department created by Congress, without legislators’ input…The order by the court was unsigned and gave no reasoning" www.nytimes.com/2025/07/14/u...
From my talk with @anandwrites.bsky.social If "the government can successfully persecute these elite schools, then it will be very easy for the government to insist on ideological conformity from other schools... [and] so many schools that could object to this don't." the.ink/p/watch-how-...
July 12, 2025 at 5:47 PM
From my talk with @anandwrites.bsky.social If "the government can successfully persecute these elite schools, then it will be very easy for the government to insist on ideological conformity from other schools... [and] so many schools that could object to this don't." the.ink/p/watch-how-...
"The pious are vanished from the land,
None upright are left among its people;
All lie in wait to commit crimes,
Every last one traps the other in a net.
They are eager to do evil:
The magistrate makes demands,
And the judge [judges] for a fee;
The rich one makes a crooked plea,
And they grant it"
None upright are left among its people;
All lie in wait to commit crimes,
Every last one traps the other in a net.
They are eager to do evil:
The magistrate makes demands,
And the judge [judges] for a fee;
The rich one makes a crooked plea,
And they grant it"
July 12, 2025 at 2:18 PM
"The pious are vanished from the land,
None upright are left among its people;
All lie in wait to commit crimes,
Every last one traps the other in a net.
They are eager to do evil:
The magistrate makes demands,
And the judge [judges] for a fee;
The rich one makes a crooked plea,
And they grant it"
None upright are left among its people;
All lie in wait to commit crimes,
Every last one traps the other in a net.
They are eager to do evil:
The magistrate makes demands,
And the judge [judges] for a fee;
The rich one makes a crooked plea,
And they grant it"
“Your complaints..about being too woke, about not having enough jobs for white people, about too many women in the academy—have found resonance with an authoritarian push to control our spaces,” @wesleyanuniversity.bsky.social president Michael Roth said" www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...
June 27, 2025 at 7:36 PM
“Your complaints..about being too woke, about not having enough jobs for white people, about too many women in the academy—have found resonance with an authoritarian push to control our spaces,” @wesleyanuniversity.bsky.social president Michael Roth said" www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...
From one @wesleyanuniversity.bsky.social alumnus to another: Lin presents Tony to Jeffrey url:https://www.wesleyan.edu/about/news/2025/06/blog/tony-charms.html www.wesleyan.edu/about/news/2...
June 10, 2025 at 12:37 PM
From one @wesleyanuniversity.bsky.social alumnus to another: Lin presents Tony to Jeffrey url:https://www.wesleyan.edu/about/news/2025/06/blog/tony-charms.html www.wesleyan.edu/about/news/2...
From my Commencement remarks at @wesleyanuniversity.bsky.social
May 28, 2025 at 12:18 PM
From my Commencement remarks at @wesleyanuniversity.bsky.social
Remembering Anne Greene www.wesleyan.edu/about/news/2...
May 14, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Remembering Anne Greene www.wesleyan.edu/about/news/2...
It's not only about the Ivy League and advanced research. It's about destroying independent sources of authority or expertise. @mollyjongfast.bsky.social @aacu.org @thefireorg.bsky.social @aaup.bsky.social @aceducation.bsky.social @velshimsnbc.bsky.social @msnbc.com
May 14, 2025 at 3:56 PM
It's not only about the Ivy League and advanced research. It's about destroying independent sources of authority or expertise. @mollyjongfast.bsky.social @aacu.org @thefireorg.bsky.social @aaup.bsky.social @aceducation.bsky.social @velshimsnbc.bsky.social @msnbc.com
Read @josephestiglitz.bsky.social on how the Trump administration aims to destroy the independence of institutions in civil society (like universities) to enable its march to authoritarianism. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/o...
May 13, 2025 at 12:13 PM
Read @josephestiglitz.bsky.social on how the Trump administration aims to destroy the independence of institutions in civil society (like universities) to enable its march to authoritarianism. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/o...
I spoke @velshimsnbc.bsky.social on the Administration's efforts to ensure ideological conformity by undermining the independence of institutions in civil society. @wesleyanuniversity.bsky.social @thefireorg.bsky.social @aaup.bsky.social @aacu.org @mollyjongfast.bsky.social @penamerica.bsky.social
May 12, 2025 at 6:17 PM
I spoke @velshimsnbc.bsky.social on the Administration's efforts to ensure ideological conformity by undermining the independence of institutions in civil society. @wesleyanuniversity.bsky.social @thefireorg.bsky.social @aaup.bsky.social @aacu.org @mollyjongfast.bsky.social @penamerica.bsky.social
In @wsj.com I argue that "The freedoms of campuses are an extension of the freedoms of American civil society. In neither should anyone have to follow the ideological proclivities of those in power." @wesleyanuniversity.bsky.social @penamerica.bsky.social @aacu.org www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...
May 2, 2025 at 6:27 PM
In @wsj.com I argue that "The freedoms of campuses are an extension of the freedoms of American civil society. In neither should anyone have to follow the ideological proclivities of those in power." @wesleyanuniversity.bsky.social @penamerica.bsky.social @aacu.org www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...
Happy to see this from @nytopinion.nytimes.com in the physical paper today. Ready for Seder discussion. Dayenu! www.nytimes.com/2025/04/07/o...
April 12, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Happy to see this from @nytopinion.nytimes.com in the physical paper today. Ready for Seder discussion. Dayenu! www.nytimes.com/2025/04/07/o...
Defending freedom and democracy in Middletown CT #HandsOff @wesleyanuniversity.bsky.social
April 6, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Defending freedom and democracy in Middletown CT #HandsOff @wesleyanuniversity.bsky.social
Authoritarians attack civil society, including universities. "Americans have long realized that we are a better country if we have independent sources of information and authority." Defending Higher Ed is defending freedom. www.siriusxm.com/clips/clip/f...
March 20, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Authoritarians attack civil society, including universities. "Americans have long realized that we are a better country if we have independent sources of information and authority." Defending Higher Ed is defending freedom. www.siriusxm.com/clips/clip/f...
“To save man from the morass of propaganda,” he wrote while an undergrad, “is one of the chief aims of education. Education must enable one to sift &weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction.”
roth.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2025/01/20/2...
roth.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2025/01/20/2...
January 20, 2025 at 2:21 PM
“To save man from the morass of propaganda,” he wrote while an undergrad, “is one of the chief aims of education. Education must enable one to sift &weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction.”
roth.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2025/01/20/2...
roth.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2025/01/20/2...
Over the holidays I published this review of two powerful books lareviewofbooks.org/article/from...
January 3, 2025 at 1:46 PM
Over the holidays I published this review of two powerful books lareviewofbooks.org/article/from...