Supporting Students Free Expression

Radley Balko
The Watch, Substack

Excerpt: Donald Trump has never had much tolerance for the free press. Throughout his first term he demanded we “open up the libel laws” to make it easier to sue journalists for unflattering coverage — which, more than anything else, reveals that he doesn’t really understand how any of this works.

Jack Grove
Times Higher Education

Excerpt: More than three-quarters of university staff feel academic freedom of speech is more restricted in their country than it was 10 years ago, a major survey has found.

This sense that free speech on campus has been chilled is particularly strong in the US, where 83 per cent of respondents felt this was the case, and in psychology (80 per cent) and clinical health (89 per cent), where sex and gender issues loom large.

Yascha Mounk
Persuasion

Excerpt: Cass Sunstein is an American legal scholar and the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard University. Sunstein was the Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs under Barack Obama, and is considered to be the most widely cited legal scholar in the United States. Sunstein is the author, with Richard Thaler, of Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness, The World According to Star Wars, and Campus Free Speech: A Pocket Guide.

In this week's conversation, Yascha Mounk and Cass Sunstein discuss his “law of group polarization” and how it contributes to today’s factionalism; how echo chambers work (and why social media makes them worse); and whether meeting the challenge of misinformation requires new government regulations.

Opinion Department
Cornell Daily Sun

Excerpt: Maria Lima Valdez ‘25 protested her suspension for her private Instagram post saying “Zionists must die,” arguing “it was not a call to action.” What is Valdez referring to, if not inciting violence?

While the means to achieve the outcome are unspecified, it would be overly naive to assume Valdez is referring to a “magical” disappearance of people. The phrase explicitly advocates for the individuals’ death based solely on their ideological identity. It does not critique “Zionism,” the ideology itself, but rather its followers. By targeting people, the post reduces their humanity to their ideological affiliation. The rhetoric openly calls for their elimination and thus crosses from opinion to constituting dangerous incitement to the worst hatred.

Melinda Manning
Inside Higher Ed

Excerpt: It’s incredibly gratifying when we can see those very changes that we once fought for—and never expected to be implemented. Almost 12 years ago, I was a college administrator who filed both Title IX and Clery Act complaints with the Department of Education against the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the university that was both my employer and my beloved alma mater.

Over the years, UNC repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, even after being placed under federal monitoring and having to pay a hefty fine. I seriously doubted that their systems for conducting Title IX investigations would ever improve in any meaningful ways. I am happy to say that I was wrong.

Johanna Alonso
Inside Higher Ed

Excerpt: When a group of students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology launched a pro-Palestine magazine in the spring of 2024, they hoped it would serve as a platform for “revolutionary thought on campus,” according to its first issue: “We believe that writing and art are among the most powerful tools for conducting a revolution.” Housing artwork, literature and essays related to Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza, the publication, titled Written Revolution, began as a totally independent magazine before becoming an official student organization this fall.

The publication has ceased nearly all distribution in response to administrators’ demands, according to students affiliated with the organization, and Iyengar is facing disciplinary action.