When Conservative Politics Hit Cash-Starved Universities

Jessica Grose wrote in a New York Times Opinion essay that a recent University of Oklahoma grading dispute has highlighted how conservative political pressure and financial strain are reshaping campus life. Grose recounts the Oklahoma case in which a student, Samantha Fulnecky, turned in a biblically inflected paper that a teaching assistant, Mel Curth, graded with a zero.

Fulnecky contacted university and state officials, a conservative anti-union group and the press; Grose says the failing grade was removed, Fulnecky became a right-wing media figure, Curth was fired and another instructor was placed on leave. The essay argues that the Trump administration and sympathetic state legislators have “chilled academic freedom,” and that this political pressure intersects with long-term enrollment declines and rising tuition.

Grose writes that as colleges rely on student tuition, instructors—especially the non‑tenured majority—have become more vulnerable to complaints and administrative pressure. Grose cites related examples: Greg Lukianoff wrote in a guest essay about a philosophy professor at Texas A&M being told to remove Plato from a syllabus under a race-and-gender teaching policy, which Lukianoff described as “prior restraint.” She also reports that more than 200 educators responded to her query about feeling at risk for rigorous grading or controversial teaching, with many saying they now avoid material they once taught confidently.

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