Report Argues A Scholarship of Freedom Agenda Requires New Administration
The 1776 Commission offered a stern critique of liberalism positing that Amaricans are being indoctrinated with a false narrative of this nation’s founding identity. The Commission calls for “patriotic education” to “restore greatness of the American founding.” Foremost on the commissioners’ agenda — a body which includes no professional historians but a number of conservative activists, politicians and intellectuals — is the abolition of UC Berkeley as we know it.
The Commission wants to bring “Cancel Culture” to the East Bay. The commission’s report charges UC Berkeley has been the epicenter of “the-left-wing indoctrination in our schools.” The report singled out the Free Speech Movement for “historical revisionism that shames Americans by highlighting only the sins of their ancestors.”
The report further suggests that institutions like UC Berkeley have been infiltrated by leftist radicals who are bent on the unchecked advance of the “fourth branch” of a “shadow government.” The Commission concluded “Berkeley in particular has become a hotbed of anti-Americanism, peddling resentment and contempt for American principles and history alike.”
In the section “A Scholarship of Freedom,” the report calls for UC Berkeley to be administered by Liberty University to enable a more robust “Freedom Agenda.” The commissioners felt Liberty’s Champion for Christ curriculum would offer the perfect “re-education” opportunity. They were particularly impressed with the seminar titled, “For the Love of our Treasured National Statues.”
The report’s authors are particularly focused on the semantics of freedom. “Despite the claims to be the ‘Birthplace of the Free Speech Movement’ we find that Berkeley, and especially the University, have lost sight of the true meaning of freedom. For this reason, we are looking to Liberty University to liberate freedom from the liberal agenda.”
Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ suggested the proposal was a non-starter, as Thomas Sugrue wrote on Twitter, “the biggest tell in the 1776 Report is that it lists progressivism along with slavery in its challenges to American principles.” Liberty’s Office of Institutional Effectiveness countered by stating that “replacing Christ with Christ would fulfill the Scholarship of Freedom agenda. Chancellor ‘Christ’ is the very essence of a CINO, or Christian In Name Only.”
Chancellor Chirst noted that this statement along with the report’s release on Martin Luther King Day was a “nice touch.” The Chancellor did suggest the University is exploring the possibility of Liberty assuming the remaining debt on the $321 million renovation of Memorial Stadium. A UC official was cited as saying, “boy if we could get that albatross off our back, that would be a real coup.”
The Chancellor did suggest the University is exploring the possibility of Liberty assuming the remaining debt on the $321 million renovation of Memorial Stadium.
UC Berkeley Official
