Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2009

No; the "new turn" is described in the first paragraph you cite. The
sentence "Very little agitates ..." is the _outcome_ of the "new turn".
Perhaps a slight adjustment makes the sentence clearer:

"These days, very little agitates academia more than the
demands of passionate minorities for revision of the curriculum" ?

I tried...

Not quite.  Read the paragraph this way:
1.  "Very little agitates X more" = "What agitates X most"
2.  AS's first paragraph says American life has turned (= changed
direction.)   American life used to privilege common all-American
characters;  American life now privileges selected minority or
non-American characters.
3.  AS's second paragraph describes the character of this "turn"
in universities, which now are "agitated" by "demands of passionate
minorities" that the curriculum be revised to suit their programmes
or preferences.

It is not particularly clear, but AS is now a tired old professor.  I think
he is making two unrelated points.
(a)  Quiet campuses:  when he was an active academic, universities
reformed themselves demographically (mainly by admitting black
and female students equally with white men) without becoming
agitated.   (Agitation occurred only at a few Deep South universities
that tried to exclude black students.)  But passion about social
or demographic reform is now accepted (normal) everywhere.
(b)  Curriculum.   When leading universities reformed themselves
as in (a) the curriculum did not change.   But the passionate
nowadays demand that the curriculum itself be altered to
recognize the special interests of blacks, feminists, sexual
nonconformists, etc.

It means:
Now and in the very recent past ("these days"), very few things ("very
little") agitate academia to a greater degree than [the demands of
passionate minorities for revision of the curriculum] does.  ("does" =
agitate academia).

Clear now?

[...]

Not quite. The demands of minorities /represent/ the "new turn". So he's
saying "Few things agitate universities more than minorities' demands
for curriculum change". These demands agitate universities more than
most other things do.

I detest the word "academia", by the way; but it's perfectly safe to
ignore me.

Yes, academia prefers "Good morning".

"These days" is a separate adverb phrase, which could be placed at the
beginning of the sentence. The meaning is roughly "Currently something that
greatly agitates academia are the demands ...."

Alan Jones