The Shadow University was originally published in 1998, and while most of the events Kors and Silverglate describe date from the late 80s and early 90s, it provides essential context for The Diversity Hoax . While Berkeley is well known as one of the nation's most politicized campuses, the authors show that its problem is not unique. The problems of academic freedom that the affirmative action controversy brought to a head at Boalt Hall are a manifestation of much of academia's wider commitment to the more extreme forms of intellectual and cultural revolution. Professors and administrators at most of our most prominent institutions bring their ideological baggage to class with them, hoping to use the educational process as a vehicle for social engineering. Such abuses of the trust placed in professionals by students and parents is even more disturbing than the Boalt student radicals' Orwellian outbursts.
Speech codes are a particularly nasty product, popular with the campus left.
In practice, speech codes makes an actionable offense of any kind of communication that anyone finds upsetting. Kors and Silverglate also report the draconian procedures that many schools used to prosecute speech offenses. Hearings were carried out in secret and alleged offenders were often denied the opportunity to speak to a lawyer or be represented by a faculty advocate. Due process, clearly, was less important than enforcing consensus. Unsurprisingly, Berkeley's administration was also complicit in the harassment of students who argued against affirmative action.