In his new book The Opinionated University: Academic Freedom, Diversity, and the Myth of Neutrality in American Higher Education (University of Chicago Press, 2026), Boston College graduate Brian Soucek pushes against the tide of universities increasingly pledging to stay neutral about contentious issues. He argues that universities should focus instead on what their mission should be, and who should determine it. According to Soucek, in everything from curricular and admissions decisions to their response to outside rankings and their evaluation of faculty, universities express the values at the heart of their mission. He argues that those pushing for neutrality are only preventing universities from standing up for their values. Soucek, who earned a bachelor’s degree from BC in 1998, is the Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law at the University of California, Davis.