Occidental College in Los Angeles, the alma mater of former President Barack Obama, is under fire after deciding not to renew the contract of a conservative economics professor, Daron Djerdjian.
Djerdjian, who has been teaching at the college since 2010, is known for his free-market views, making him a rare voice of conservatism in the institution’s economics department. According to economist Mark Skousen, who serves as adjunct faculty at an institute founded by Djerdjian, the college’s decision not to renew his contract is part of a broader move away from intellectual diversity.
In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Skousen referred to Djerdjian as the college’s “only free-market professor” and suggested that the decision to let him go reflects the college’s commitment to diversity and equity in a selective manner.
“For all its talk about diversity, equity and inclusion, Occidental College, the only small liberal-arts college in Los Angeles, doesn’t seem keen on putting those values into practice,” Djerdjian wrote in his op-ed. “Late last year the economics department opted not to renew the contract of an untenured professor whose libertarian and conservative views went against the grain. So much for its public commitment to diversity of political views.”
The news of Djerdjian’s departure has sparked significant opposition from the college community. A petition initiated by students and alumni, urging the college to retain Djerdjian received 400 signatures. The students behind the petition argued that Djerdjian’s conservative perspectives are essential to ensuring a broad range of viewpoints are represented in the curriculum.
“This will be a colossal loss to his past, present and prospective students, as well as to the marketplace of ideas at Occidental College and the world at large,” the petition said.
Skousen also criticized the economics department’s shift in recent years, claiming it has moved away from being a place of intellectual diversity.
“The economics department is now largely staffed by graduates of University of California schools who place more emphasis on fair trade than free trade and market failure than government failure, and are more likely to quote Keynesian Joseph Stiglitz than Milton Friedman,” Skousen claimed. “Sadly, political diversity is dying at Oxy and is being replaced by less tolerant wokeness.”
This piece first appeared at TPUSA.
