Dramatic plot twists, swift justice, heroes, and underdogs. We all like good, wholesome stories because realities are often messier and stickier. For many who dare to stand up for their convictions and suffer the consequences of being politically incorrect in spaces captured by political correctness, winning is either highly unlikely or painfully cost-prohibitive.

Accounting professor Dr. Gordon Klein was suspended by the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) business school in 2020, after his refusal to grade black students leniently brought on a firestorm of cancellation requests and racism allegations. Dr. Klein had taught at the school with a faultless record for nearly four decades. He sued the school in 2021. Five years later, after absorbing mounting attorney fees, Dr. Klein received an unfavorable court ruling dismissing all his legal claims against the school. The judge sided with the defendants, agreeing that “UCLA had the right to determine what public response was necessary to address and mitigate the immediate [and] extraordinary public outrage toward” a professor who did not bow down to the racial-reckoning mob.

You may remember Dr. Jim Condon, previously an Astronomer Emeritus at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). Luckily for him, Dr. Condon recently won $130,000 in damages, plus nearly $80,000 in attorney’s fee reimbursement, from his former employer. He had publicly spoken out against certain NRAO programs that based hiring on race and institutionalized ideological mandates in professional development. Despite a spotless tenure spanning more than 40 years, he was terminated and had his emeritus status revoked. Through the lawsuit, a treasure trove of damning evidence surfaced showing that the administration retaliated against an academic who professed disfavored viewpoints. While the court vindicated Dr. Condon, he also offered a word of caution: “Don’t try this unless you are determined enough to pay $100,000 out-of-pocket for legal expenses, work several hundred hours to help your legal team prepare your case, and wait three years for results.” (WATCH: Jim Condon Fights Back Against Cancellation—and Wins).

The drawn-out and expensive nature of legal warfare that shifts burdens of proof and discovery disproportionately on individuals canceled by institutions is a significant barrier for more junior scholars and professors who must balance voicing dissent and protecting their fledgling tenures. Too often, not going along with the cultural and political orthodoxy can cost one dearly, even after accounting for an eventual legal victory.

In 2023, Ohio Northern University terminated Dr. Scott Gerber, who was a tenured professor of law, after he opposed the school’s race-based hiring practices. Dr. Gerber, with the help of American First Legal, secured a settlement with the university, which agreed to his full reinstatement and total vindication, after nearly two years of litigation. But even a complete legal victory could not undo the years of lost teaching opportunities, reputational damage, and personal hardship he endured for refusing to remain silent. (Read “Letter: In Defense of Professor Scott Gerber” on the National Association of Scholars (NAS)).

Dr. Matthew Garrett, formerly a Bakersfield College professor of history, paid the price of speaking out with his tenure. During his time at Bakersfield College, Dr. Garrett mobilized conservative and right-to-center faculty members, criticized the school’s stance on immigration, and exposed its financial entanglements with far-left organizations. He also championed viewpoint diversity and academic freedom. Apparently, for his university community, Dr. Garrett went so far that a formal investigation into his “conduct” was warranted. One thing led to another. Before he knew it, Dr. Garrett was buried in allegations of “racism,” “sexism,” and “unprofessional conduct,” all of which were later challenged in court. (NAS wrote in support of Garrett). After years of litigation, the Kern Community College District agreed to pay Garrett a $2.4 million settlement, while Garrett agreed to resign and withdraw his remaining legal and administrative complaints. But though he secured a favorable settlement, Garrett had spent years fighting to clear his name and challenge what he viewed as retaliation for exercising his rights.

If tenured professors and seasoned academics have faced insurmountable obstacles and explosive blowbacks for misaligning with the demands of ideological purity, students fare far worse.

A college senior joined us, the Californians for Equal Rights Foundation, in a legal challenge against a race-based scholarship at the University of California at San Diego last year. After the university restructured the scholarship following our side’s victory in the settlement, legacy media outlets targeted the student. He was later doxed by classmates as a supposed “Ku Klux Klan fanatic,” forcing him into self-isolation out of fear that the controversy would render him unemployable.

Structural problems require structural solutions.

Without reforming higher education from within—institutions currently monopolized by identity politics and groupthink—individual acts of heroism, no matter how admirable, barely scratch the surface. The problem is structural. Asking isolated dissenters to reverse the ideological capture of universities on their own is like bringing a knife to a machine-gun fight. Any serious effort at reform must begin by confronting the severe partisan imbalance now embedded across academia, manifesting itself in everything from commencement speakers to faculty political donations. College graduation speakers outnumber conservatives roughly six to one, while in the 2022 election cycle, 93 percent of political contributions from college professors went to Democratic candidates and causes.

There will be no meaningful changes until the serious political and ideological biases are addressed.

Follow Wenyuan Wu on X.