A prominent New York University professor who’s been an outspoken critic of cancel culture now has another reason to oppose it — the group of students that wants to cancel his scheduled commencement speech.
Jonathan Haidt, who teaches social psychology at the Stern School of Business, came under fire from members of the NYU student government in a May 5 open letter that called his selection “deeply unsettling” and accused him of “making homophobic remarks in a class and public misconceptions about transgender identity.”
The Executive Committee of the NYU Student Government Assembly also accused Haidt — co-author of the 2018 New York Times bestseller The Coddling of the American Mind — of “disturbing rhetoric around antiracism, social justice, and diversity, equity and inclusion, claiming that the abolition of DEI may be the only way out of the Leftist ideological capture of American campuses.”
And in a May 6 opinion piece for the independent, student-run Washington Square News website, senior Mehr Kotval described Haidt as an “an anti-woke author who has consistently patronized student activists” and called his selection as commencement speaker a “last parting gift of disrespect” from NYU.
The campus controversy was reported Wednesday by The New York Times, which said that Haidt, through a spokesperson, declined to comment on the student opposition but said he was “deeply humbled” by his selection as commencement speaker.
NYU hasn’t altered its plan to have Haidt address its graduates during Thursday’s commencement ceremony at Yankee Stadium, the Times said, with a school spokesperson calling him “one of the most consequential scholars of the 21st century.”
In addition to co-authoring The Coddling of the American Mind with Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, Haidt’s books include 2012’s The Righteous Mind, 2020’s The Happiness Hypothesis and 2024’s The Anxious Generation.
He also cofounded the online Heterodox Academy, a nonprofit “dedicated to defending and modeling the norms of open inquiry and constructive disagreement,” according to its website.
“HxA members are dedicated to advancing the principles of open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, the free exchange of ideas, and constructive disagreement as cornerstones of academic and intellectual life,” it says.
During last year’s efforts by President Donald Trump’s administration to have ABC cancel Jimmy Kimmel Live! over the host’s remarks about the assassination of Charlie Kirk, Haidt wrote on X, “Cancel culture is terrible.”
“I have opposed it publicly for more than a decade. It is even more chilling, and more clearly a violation of the First Amendment, when it is the government doing the intimidation,” he added.
In their statement, the student government leaders said NYU students were “astonished by the University’s inability to leverage its vast network and unique connections to secure a speaker whose scholarship and global contributions more accurately reflect the values and diversity of its graduates.”
In contrast to Haidt, the committee listed examples of previous “gold standard” commencement speakers, starting with former Saturday Night Live actor Molly Shannon and pop star Taylor Swift.
The statement also dismissed what it called Haidt’s “most recent accomplishment”: a university initiative called NYU IRL that’s based on his research and involves phone-free spaces and events, as well as providing resources for faculty members to incorporate “device-free practices” into their teaching.
The committee said some students found NYU IRL to be “reductive and oblivious to far more pressing matters than digital distraction” and it accused NYU of “effectively disregarding the very real-world crises and systemic hurdles that have defined our graduates’ experiences.”
