Connie Buehler
’82
Member, DFTD Board of Directors
Chair, Alumni Free Speech Alliance
Davidson College Reunion Weekend | June 4, 2026
My 40-year career has been focused on joyously and avidly preparing, interviewing, counseling, and placing college grads from across the US into their best possible first jobs. Seeing a grad land a role that will challenge and inspire them is my passion. Things went great for the first 25 years of my career–I went around the US finding fabulous kids who hungered for the best opportunity to launch their career and follow their passion.
Starting around 2015, however, I first noticed a shift in capability and engagement in a growing percentage of the seniors with whom I interacted. By 2020, job retention among those hired in ensuing years was dramatically declining. For example, I heard from a company that had hired 5 Davidson grads that 1.5 years later they had already fired 2, and 1 was on probation. I also had a much harder time finding students who wanted to challenge themselves in launching their careers. One requested a job only if there was a nice boss; one wanted a 30-hour work week so he could work on his social justice projects; and one wouldn’t complete the “challenging” online case during the application process that would have been so worth it in the long run.
Through my interaction with Davidson students—and with college students across the U.S. more broadly—I found that many of their classes started within a “cramped intellectual space,” with predetermined outcomes and ideologies already decided.
What was and remains missing from many of these classrooms is the comfort of free speech to challenge those outcomes. Students are not being prepared to think boundlessly about contentious issues, and this lack of development greatly limits their success in the outside world and real life.
I might start with a quote from Davidson College President Hicks as well as a quote from A Call for Constructive Engagement (4/25) that was a collaborative statement from the American Association of Colleges & Universities which he signed:
First his quote on the Davidson website: “The very act of creating a college that values freedom of expression, diverse viewpoints and mutual respect is itself a public good, serving not only Davidson but our wider society.”
Now the collective quote signed by 100’s of college Presidents, including ours: “ Our colleges and universities share a commitment to serve as centers of open inquiry where, in their pursuit of truth, faculty, students and staff are free to exchange ideas and opinions across a full range of viewpoints without fear of retribution, censorship or deportation.” These noble goals are not some radical changes or a root philosophical alteration of how colleges were founded. It is in the implementation of these very goals that so many colleges have failed.
A quote from Greg Lukianoff, the CEO of FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression) stated just last week, “People often talk about free speech as if its primary purpose is self expression, personal autonomy, or participation in democracy. But the deeper reason I’ve spent decades defending free speech is that it remains humanity’s most effective tool for figuring out what’s true—or, perhaps more accurately, for discovering what is false.
I decided to do a great deal of research to determine the range of free speech at one specific college, Davidson College, but then compare it to all the colleges and universities across the US. I think telling a story in numbers is the easiest way to do that.
Number: 3.17%
Issue: Lack of true shared diversity
Only 3.17% of Davidson professors identify as conservative. It is not difficult to see how those “cramped intellectual spaces” expand without any true effort to bring in genuinely diverse professors and ideas. And their ‘targeted’ instruction has had a profound effect on campus culture. As Greg Lukainoff shared in June of this year, he commissioned a study of over 100k professors at 55 schools/universities and checked their donations across 850M state and federal campaigns. Contribution data showed that 40% Liberal professors’ donations went to groups identified as Radical, Political Activist, Marxist or Socialist. The concern, of course, is that the gap in the middle continues to broaden.
Further evidence of this dominance of liberal instruction shows in Davidson students’ inability and unwillingness to allow true diversity on campus, back in late 2025, two Davidson alums who work at Palantir had been booked to come to campus to speak at an information session/career fair, yes, sharing great jobs. Let me read from The Davidsonian directly from the student who wrote the article’s perspective of what happened: “Palantir is a secretive software and data analysis company which uses AI and data mining for national security purposes. The company has multiple contracts with the Trump administration and the Israeli Defense Forces… Student groups from the College Democrats, Queers & Allies, Students Against Imperialism, Hack@Davidson, Planned Parenthood Action, and the Immigrant Justice Coalition each sent open letters calling for the event to be cancelled.”
Quotes as to why they should not be allowed to come came from individuals representing groups like: Nalini Butterworth, who serves on Students for Inclusive Academics, who said, “This impulse to action, to identify that this felt incongruent with what we understood our goals to be as students, as members of this college, caused me to start this chain.” Julia Siqueira, co-president of the College Democrats, said, “It was deeply alarming that Davidson would even consider having such an event… I thought it was actually contrary to our principles of free expression.” Once these alums, who only wanted to share job opportunities, backed out of coming, Siqueira posted, “It showed that we can work together and that students are going to pay attention to who gets invited into our community.” Might a student just not attend rather than disallowing all students to miss a potential job opportunity?
Number: >300; 450
Issue: DEI
We all know that DEI has had an increasingly strong influence on college spaces.
Fact: We had one Davidson math professor put on her syllabus for Multivariable Calculus and Modeling:
Anti-oppression: I am committed to creating and sustaining an inclusive and equitable learning environment for all students. I recognize racism, sexism, classism, ableism, heterosexism, and cisgenderism as systems of oppression that affect our whole society and communities like our classrooms. I acknowledge my own power and privilege as a white person, an aspect of my identity that has made success in mathematics easier for me than Black, Indigenous, and POC (BIPOC) individuals, who have been historically excluded from mathematics by racist policies and people. I commit to the ongoing and iterative work of developing personal and institutional practices of anti-oppression, including in what and how I teach. (And by implication, how I grade). While that may be her right to free expression, is she allowed as an educator to limit the exchange of ideas from students?
We also found the same 10 point Anti-Oppression Statement on several syllabi ranging from Spanish, Cell Biology and Theatre:
Additionally, in the pendulum reaction to George Floyd, Davidson offered an “Abolish Police” class that gave credit for several majors. In a statement to Fox News, Davidson’s Director of Media Relations, Jay Pfeifer, in defense of this class said the school is a “student-focused institution of higher learning, grounded in the Christian Reformed tradition and therefore faithful to a God bound by no church or creed.”
“We explore all reality through unlimited employment of our intellectual powers. That same faith tradition extends our loyalty to the whole of humanity. We value diversity and respect the world’s various religious traditions. We honor the dignity and worth of every person. We focus on studies that are liberating and dedicate ourselves to the quest for truth. The offering of any class, whatever its title, reflects that it covers a subject worth studying. Grounded in these values, Davidson assists students in developing humane instincts and disciplined and creative minds for lives of leadership and service. We hope our graduates think clearly, make relevant value judgments, discriminate among values, and communicate freely in the realm of ideas.” I still don’t see justification for allowing this class on campus, especially as a member of the police was not invited to share their perspective.
Thank goodness these aforementioned syllabi in so many departments have been revised and this Abolish Police class is no longer offered. DFTD worked with the administration to encourage the editing of the most egregious equity- and bias-laden syllabi like those, but syllabi are not public; in fact only a student can see it upon signing up for the class. IT WOULD be amazingfor them to be openly published for all to see. UNC has recently done this.
Over 300 colleges and universities “have publicly rooted out DEI,” according to numbers in a Department of Education press release published 3/25/2026. Davidson, however, has told us directly they will not change, alter, or remove their Office of DEI. If you include those who have eliminated, restructured, or rebranded DEI, the number increases to over 450 - including the entire State of North Carolina school system. Fear of repercussions from the campus community for saying or doing the wrong thing holds back lively learning.
Number: >1,300 / >7000
Issue 3: Anonymous Bias Reporting Systems
There are at least1,300 anonymous bias reporting systems across the U.S., provided by a company called Maxient (which Davidson uses). Maxient states that it is a tracking system for bias-related conduct and reports receiving over 7,000 reports daily from its client schools.
Last year, we watched as FIRE defended a Davidson senior and member of Young Americans for Freedom who received a threatening letter from the administration for handing out a pamphlet entitled “The Five Myths About Israel Perpetrated by the Pro-Hamas Left,” during a pro-Palestine protest. Someone anonymously reported her actions through Maxient as “threatening to their feelings.” After FIRE’s involvement, she was never officially exonerated but was allowed to graduate. One of her fellow members of YAF filed a complaint of the lack of support from the college with the DOJ in 2025 stating “While we were prepared for this reaction from our peers, we did not expect to receive such opposition from Davidson administrators. We naively believed that despite the college’s leftist indoctrination efforts (requiring cultural diversity courses, mandating student athletics to watch a documentary arguing that all white people were inherently racist, having a DEI office, designating secluded spaces for LGBTQ+ students, etc.), they would still surely encourage free speech. After all, a liberal arts institution should cultivate a space where students can freely inquire, peacefully debate, and form decisions for themselves.” I believe a decision from the DOJ is still pending.
Also, Davidson currently has a job posting for a Director of Student Rights & Responsibilities, whose role will be to “serve as primary system administrator for managing the student conduct database (Maxient), provide statistics and reports, and assist with Clery reporting, biennial reviews, and other compliance reporting.”
We know of at least 2 suicides across the US from those under investigation, including a star Stanford student who committed suicide under intense scrutiny without knowledge of her accuser. We know of many national issues at our sister schools and their alumni groups like DFTD have successfully helped defend them. We call for the removal of all anonymous bias reporting systems. How comfortable would YOU be on campus today knowing your every word or action could be taken as a reportable offense?
Number: $93,140. 985/236
Issue 4: Cost of Tuition
$93,140— cost of tuition. One student shared that when she started, tuition was $80,000, and she is not sure she or her family can afford to pay for the change between her freshman to senior year.
The Washington Post recently published an article titled Students Are Speeding Through Their Online Degrees in Weeks—I know a MIT student who finished his undergraduate degree online in 3 months. How long until students realize they don’t need to pay $400,000 to attend undergrad? Where is this money spent and is it well spent? Are these hard earned dollars being spent wisely?
One potential area to review is the approximate ratio of staff to faculty —back in 2024 it was 985/236—certainly raising questions about the value of a 4:1 ratio of administrative oversight.
Number: 75%
Issue 5: Grade Inflation
75%—the percentage of 2025 grads who graduated cum laude or above. “Grade inflation is the practice of awarding higher academic grades for the same quality of work over time. Simply put, it means a student’s GPA and letter grades rise without a matching increase in their actual knowledge, skills, or academic achievement.” One of our board members was told by a top Wells Fargo leader that they no longer believe a Davidson resume proves the value of a student. Just last month, you may have read that Harvard has put a cap of 20% of students receiving A’s, something Davidson absolutely needs to do to restore the viewpoint of that Wells Fargo exec and many other recruiters and businesses.
So, this is a micro view of students at Davidson College. What is the macro view across the US? I can easily speak to this as I am also the Vice Chair of AFSA (Alumni Free Speech Association). We have over 20 alumni groups including Stanford, Cornell, MIT, Columbia, Williams, Dartmouth, UVA, Harvard, Furman, Michigan St, Arizona St and many others) across the US doing what DFTD does and, while all my points are valid for most of our sister schools, these next issues will be the biggest and next looming crisis for ALL:
Numbers: 2.2 million, 52%, 45%
Issue 7: Too full of a funnel → More than half of all high school graduates matriculate to college, even though only 35% of 12th graders are proficient in reading and 22% in math (NAEP). This decrease in the standard markers of math and English began around the 2012 timeframe I noticed in the employment shift as well. YET, U.S. colleges awarded those same students 2.2 million bachelor’s degrees last year—about twice as many as in 1990. (What is the value of a degree knowing these numbers and 75% of those 2.2 received cum laude or above?)
WELL—--Unemployment is growing:
In a survey of 1,000 hiring managers nationwide:
• 8 in 10 said a recent college graduate didn’t work out at their company
•7 in 10 said they placed recent hires on performance improvement plans
• 65% said they had to fire a recent graduate within weeks
~89% of HR leaders say they avoid hiring recent graduates, even while 98% say their organizations are struggling to find talent.
The results: unemployment—but critically, underemployment.
WHEN YOU COMBINE THE TRIFECTA OF TOO MANY UNDEREDUCATED GRADUATING CUM LAUDE IN DEGREES FROM NON-ADDITIVE CLASSES YOU WILL FIND:
• 52% of college graduates are underemployed at entry
• 45% remain underemployed even 10 years later (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, 8/13/25); the NY Fed reported 42.5% underemployment in Q4 2025)
Those students who choose to limp minimally challenged into employment and citizenry instead of taking a stake in their future miss the chance to see what they could truly do. This situation affects students, but it also affects our nation’s overall financial stability. Compound these outcomes year over year, and we risk a generation unable to support themselves—and national programs like Social Security.
It is time to challenge the definition of DEI from its current meaning of equal outcomes for all to equal opportunity for all. It is time to ensure classes offered on campuses will be of value to a student post-graduation and not just a class that “feels good”. It is time for school administrations to remove their Maxient Reporting System and allow free speech to foster. It is time for professors and the school administration to take a stand for institutional neutrality and not share personal political views either on campuses, in syllabi or allow their personal views to represent the views of the collective college alumni. If a student can graduate from MIT in 3 months with online instruction, colleges and universities have a very short shelf-life to get this right.
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