Supporting Students Free Expression

Anti-Israel protesters at Yale University (@NYSSofficial, X/Twitter)
Aaron Sibarium

Excerpt: Yale Law School's chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, the
group that celebrated the murder of 1,200 Israelis on Oct. 7 and
praised the architects of the attack as "martyrs," is calling on the
school to cancel an event with a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces,
arguing that his presence on campus will make students unsafe.

"We implore the administration to take seriously the implications of
this militarization of campus," Yale Law Students for Justice in
Palestine wrote in a Feb. 1 Instagram post. "The platforming of an IDF
combatant recently returned from Israel's atrocities in Gaza makes
many of us—especially Palestinian Arab, Muslim, Black, and brown
students—feel physically and psychologically unsafe and unwelcome in
our own school."

The demand to cancel the event, which is scheduled for Monday evening,
comes weeks after the same group called on Yale to "protect free
speech." It's part of a larger campaign to vilify the Jewish state and
keep IDF soldiers off the law school's campus, where some students
responded to the Oct. 7 attacks by defending Hamas and mocking Jewish
students who condemned the violence.

Susan Svrluga
Washington Post

Excerpt:  Students returned to Harvard’s campus last month after a turbulent and polarized start to the academic year, one punctuated by protests, a disastrous congressional hearing and the resignation of the university’s first Black president. The school has been sharply divided over the Israel-Gaza war; diversity, equity and inclusion efforts; and the limits of free expression. It has been attacked by politicians, wealthy alumni and its own students, a rare sign of vulnerability for one of the country’s most powerful and influential academic institutions.

Joe Killian
NC Newsline

Excerpt: The climate for free speech and expression on North Carolina’s college campuses is good and improving, according to a new report from the nonprofit Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). The group, whose work is frequently cited by campus trustees and members of the UNC System Board of Governors, gave 14 of the system’s 16 university campuses its highest “green light” rating in its new report.

Jerry Coyne
Why Evolution is True

Excerpt: Over 100 universities have adopted some version of the University of Chicago’s Principle of Free Expression, also called the “Chicago Statement”: a strong version of free speech, pretty much adhering to the First Amendment. But the same doesn’t hold for another mainstay of our free-speech program: the Kalven Principles. This is the principle of institutional neutrality

I want to note that another university has just joined the three having official institutional neutrality. And that is Columbia University

Caitlin Flanagan
The Atlantic

Excerpt:  If you’ve taken a college tour lately, either as an applicant or as the parent of an applicant, you may have noticed that at some point—usually as you’re on the death march from the aquatic center to the natural-sciences complex—the tour guide will spin smartly on her heel, do the college-tour-guide thing of performatively walking backwards, and let you in on something very important. “What’s different about College X,” she’ll say confidently, “is that our professors don’t teach you what to think. They teach you how to think.”

Jessica Blake
Inside Higher Ed

Excerpt: American University administrators have banned all indoor protests in a move they say is intended to promote inclusivity and signal a clear intolerance of antisemitism on campus.  

Sylvia Burwell, the university’s president, said in a Jan. 25 letter to the campus that the decision was made in response to “recent events and incidents on campus [that] have made Jewish students feel unsafe and unwelcome.” The protest ban comes on the heels of a complaint filed by multiple Jewish advocacy groups to the U.S. Education Department's Office for Civil Rights, asserting that the Washington, D.C., institution is a hostile environment for Jewish and Israeli students.