What Does Bowdoin Teach?

Editor’s Note: On April 3, 2013, the National Association of Scholars (NAS) released its study, What Does Bowdoin Teach? How a Contemporary Liberal Arts College Shapes Students.¹ Co-authored by NAS president Peter Wood and NAS director of research projects Michael Toscano, it is the longest report—nearly four hundred pages—and most ambitious research venture in NAS history. The report has garnered considerable positive attention, but has also been subject to some harsh criticism. What follows is a dialogue between Peter Wood and Tom Klingenstein, who funded the Bowdoin study and who is the chairman of the Claremont Institute and a member of the NAS board of directors.

Wood: Tom, as you know, What Does Bowdoin Teach?demonstrated strong evidence of political bias, a curriculum that is incoherent, a pervading preoccupation with identity group diversity, displacement of intellectual standards, promotion