Though Mitch Daniels has recently made news for attempting to remove Howard Zinn from Indiana’s classrooms, it’s his own institution that merits closer attention. A parent of a current Purdue student wrote into the Wall Street Journal today to reveal that the school is requiring all its students to read “No Impact Man,” an extreme environmentalist tract penned by a self-described “guilty Manhattan liberal.” It is not uncommon for schools to assign left-leaning books to their incoming classes. However, Purdue goes one step further by describing the book in terms one often reserves for the classic works of literature and philosophy our universities neglect. “No Impact Man,” Purdue tells its students, “provides a common intellectual foundation” and “is not ‘merely a book’–it is an intentional and essential piece of your overall Purdue experience.” President Daniels, call your office.
