A sign of the times for the worse …

… BU Editorial Institute Dispute: Ricks Defenestrated | National Review. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

… Ricks has been a root-and-branch opponent of radical relativism and the perverse, verbose claims of Franco-Nietzschean literary theory. He has seen that on the side of the humanities and social sciences, the modern university is skewed in favor of fad, “neophilia,” nominalism, and counterintuitive attacks on every inherited civilizing tradition. If I don’t say something shocking, bold, new, odd, outrageous, obscene, or funky, how am I to attract attention and get tenure? And why should I defer to Aristotle, Dante, Milton, Kant, Austen, Dickens, Melville, Du Bois, or Eliot? Transgressive novelty at all costs.

Looks as though BU can be scratched off the application list. Like other such schools of  mauvaise foi, it might learn something from a serious drop in enrollment.