Heterodox UCLA – part of an emergent network of cognate initiatives at other UC campuses and nationwide, and a campus affiliate of Heterodox Academy – draws together members of the university community from diverse viewpoints and disciplines who are committed to open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and constructive disagreement. We organize public events and advocate for policy and culture changes that will help UCLA renew its commitment to its fundamental mission of producing preserving, and transmitting knowledge.
Like universities nationwide, UCLA faces an array of serious challenges and threats. These include threats to our autonomy, our resources, and campus comity and civility. Many of these threats come from the outside, but some are of our own making. Universities have made themselves vulnerable to external interference by retreating from their core mission and losing the confidence of the public. According to a recent Gallup poll, the share of US adults expressing a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in higher education has plunged from 57% in 2015 to a mere 36% in 2024. The future of the university cannot be assured without regaining that confidence.
Doing so at UCLA will require prioritizing the pursuit and transmission of knowledge over advocacy and activism. It will require cultivating greater tolerance for diverse points of view. And it will require more robust faculty and student commitment to preserving intellectual autonomy, more energetic faculty involvement in shared governance, and less administrative encroachment on faculty searches and other core intellectual activities.
You can read our full mission statement here. We encourage UCLA faculty members (including emeriti, adjunct, in-residence, and clinical faculty) who support our mission to sign up to endorse the mission statement.
All members of the campus community (including students and staff) can sign up here to join our mailing list and be informed about future events.
Heterodox UCLA 