The Case for Disruption: Defending Academic Freedom Through the Liberal Arts

By Mary Ruiz

Why are we gathering scholars, students, educators, and advocates to talk about “Disruptive Principles” in the liberal arts? In short: because the foundational values of academic freedom are under threat, and not at the margins, but at the center of public life, in the United States and around the world.

The 2025 update of the Academic Freedom Index, a collaborative global research initiative, presents sobering findings. Thirty-four nations and territories have seen statistically significant declines in academic freedom over the past decade. 

The erosion is not accidental. 

According to the report, governments are employing strikingly similar strategies across borders: reducing institutional autonomy, limiting what may be taught, and cutting funding for research and study in areas that deviate from their preferred political or ideological narratives.

These methods reflect an alarming global pattern, and one we can no longer ignore.

The liberal arts find themselves subject to attack not because they are ineffectual or outdated, but precisely because they are powerful: powerful drivers of creativity, curiosity, tolerance, and innovation. When strong, the liberal arts challenge falsehoods. They enable students to ask difficult questions. They cultivate open-minded thinkers and active citizens—the lifeblood of any democracy.

Founded in 1960, New College of Florida embodied this vision of the liberal arts. It was one of the nation’s boldest experiments in student-centered education, where curiosity, collaboration, and intellectual risk-taking were not only encouraged, they were expected. By 2020, it had earned recognition as one of the top five public liberal arts colleges in the country.

But in 2023, New College became the focus of global attention—not for its innovations in pedagogy or its unconventional model, but due to a politically motivated restructuring of its board of trustees. A new mission was imposed from the top down, aimed at remaking the institution in ways that reflect a narrowed vision of education and society. What was once an incubator for independent thought became a cautionary tale.

Yet out of this moment comes a renewed sense of purpose. The Five Disruptive Principles in the Liberal Arts, pioneered at New College over five decades, are more essential than ever. These principles—student agency, interdisciplinary breadth and depth, mastery, mutual engagement, and meaningful assessment—stand in direct opposition to authoritarian thinking. They are not nostalgic ideals. They are tools for preserving academic freedom and reinvigorating our shared understanding of what liberal arts education can and should be.

As Masha Gessen recently wrote in The New York Times, the appropriate response to attacks on academic freedom is not withdrawal, it is more dissemination of knowledge. Visibility, dialogue, and public engagement are our best defenses.

This project began as a series of essays commissioned by AltLiberalArts from five scholars—Drs. Robert Benedetti, Dan Chambliss, Stephen Miles, Juliana Pare-Blagoev, and Eric Schikler—each reflecting on one of the five principles as expressed in practice at the historic New College from roughly 1970 to 2020.

AltLiberalArts is proud to have hosted this webinar series. And to be clear: we are an independent educational organization. We are not affiliated with New College of Florida, and the views represented through this project are our own.

But the urgency of the conversation extends far beyond any one institution. The question before us now is not just how to protect academic freedom, but how to express it, live it, and pass it on.