Academic organizations such as the American Historical Association and the American Chemical Society have long served the useful purpose of gathering far-flung scholars and sharing advances in knowledge. But in recent years, too many of these organizations have taken on a new and inappropriate role: issuing official statements on all matters of political interest. Especially troubling is that these unscholarly pronouncements are coming from organizations that are significant recipients of taxpayer money.

Generally speaking, these statements don’t even pretend to be rooted in member expertise. Following the death of George Floyd, for example, the American Society for Engineering Education declared Floyd’s murder indicative “of learned, ingrained, and automatic behaviors that have and will require persistent, consistent, and resistant action to limit and eventually reverse.”