Published in Medium – The Faculty on January 18, 2021 Turf Battles in the Modern University How campus politics has come to resemble gang warfare. Photo credit: Unsplash and Rene Ranisch In attempting to secure approval for a new “Critical Thinking” minor, a Philosophy Department Chair discovers that he had stepped on a few toes. Chairs of the English, Mathematics and Engineering departments protest that critical thinking is within their bailiwick (or sphere of operations).