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The John Batchelor Show

Broken Windows on Campus: Addressing Disorder and Monoculture in Higher Education Tal Fortgang Tal Fortgang applies the "broken windows" theory to higher education, arguing that unpunished small infractions, like shutting down speakers, lead to campus dis

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

Books, Society & Culture, Arts, News

4.52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 24 September 2025

⏱️ 12 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Broken Windows on Campus: Addressing Disorder and Monoculture in Higher Education Tal Fortgang Tal Fortgang applies the "broken windows" theory to higher education, arguing that unpunished small infractions, like shutting down speakers, lead to campus disorder and violence, exemplified by the attack on Charlie Kirk.
1906 Stanford

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This is CBS, I on the world. I'm John Batchelor. The Broken Windows policing syndrome,

0:31.3

sweeping through the late 20th century, to my knowledge, in New York City. And the way I interpreted at the time was, you've got to start somewhere.

0:41.5

And if you fix a broken window on a street, chances are you're going to eventually find

0:47.0

you live in a safe, clean street.

0:49.3

That was the theory.

0:50.9

And I was attracted to it, and it worked for a time.

0:56.6

I welcomed Tal Fort Gang, a legal policy fellow at the Manhattan Institute, writing most recently at Civitas Outlook, which is part of the

1:03.0

Civitas Institute at the University of Texas and Austin. Tala, a very good evening to you. You've taken a

1:08.6

metaphor that was successful late 20th century in New York.

1:13.5

It needs updating. However, the metaphor is useful and you've applied it to higher education. How so?

1:19.9

What is your thinking, Tal? Good evening to you.

1:22.9

Good evening, John. And thank you for having me on. The broken windows theory, as you alluded to, is the

1:31.1

idea that when a small sign of disorder is present and not fixed, people pick up on that,

1:40.3

and they recognize that they are in a disordered place where authority is not going to assert itself,

1:47.0

and they begin to test the limits of that authority.

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