Trustee Responsibility Free Speech

Carole Hooven
The Free Press

Excerpt: Since early December, the end of my 20-year career teaching at Harvard has been the subject of articles, op-eds, tweets from a billionaire, and even a congressional hearing. I have become a poster child for how the growing campus DEI—Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion—bureaucracies strangle free speech. My ordeal has been used to illustrate the hypocrisy of the assertions by Harvard’s leaders that they honor the robust exchange of challenging ideas.

To be a central example of what has gone wrong in higher education feels surreal. If there is any silver lining to losing the career that I found so fulfilling, perhaps it’s that my story will help explain the fear that stalks campuses, a fear that spreads every time someone is punished for their speech.

Jerry Coyne
Why Evolution is True

Excerpt: The Atlantic is actually becoming a reasonable venue instead of a woke one.  Example in point: this article by podcaster and writer Josh Barro.  We’ve probably encountered most of his indictments before, but he explains why the problems with American universities is making most Americans—Democrats, Republicans, and independents—lose respect for the institutions. Click to read, or, if the article is paywalled,  you can find an archived version here.

Times Union
Barbara DeMille

Excerpt: When dealing in the arts of propaganda and thought control, you must always, first, dishonor the intellectuals. And in the insidious process of disgracing independent thought, those who think — and have the temerity to speak and publish what they think — will always be prime targets.

Faced with aggressive questioning from U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik in a congressional hearing last month, college presidents stumbled through answers about antisemitism on campus. Stefanik claims it as a vital victory to be rid of these instances of “deep institutional rot.” And what do the Republican congresswoman and her colleagues plan to do once they have cleansed our institutional rot?  Her North Star, Donald Trump, offers clues.

Collin Binkley
Associated Press

Excerpt: Generations of Americans have held firm to a version of free speech that makes room for even the vilest of views. It’s girded by a belief that the good ideas rise above the bad, that no one should be punished for voicing an idea — except in rare cases where the idea could lead directly to illegal action.

Today, that idea faces competition more forceful and vehement than it has seen for a century. On college campuses, a newer version of free speech is emerging as young generations redraw the line where expression crosses into harm.

Suzanne Nossell
CNN

Excerpt:  In a matter of months, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion — or DEI — has gone from a guiding light on US college campuses to a deprecated doctrine blamed for chilling speech and imposing groupthink in higher education.

DEI programs are not inherently censorious. On the contrary, an open marketplace of ideas requires that everyone be able and willing to speak up. If barriers including prejudice, stereotyping or intimidation inhibit certain students from joining in classroom discussions or extracurricular life, the vitality of the public square diminishes. Steps to eliminate those obstacles range from training professors to elicit broader in class participation, supporting students with weaker academic backgrounds, or fostering community among sometimes isolated minorities.

Katherine Knott
Inside Higher Ed

Excerpt: Colleges and universities would have to report annually the number of civil rights complaints they receive and how they addressed them under a new Senate bill introduced Thursday.

Sponsored by Dr. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican senator, and Senator John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, the legislation would require colleges to give students information about how to file a complaint with the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights. The bill is largely a response to the recent rise in reported antisemitic incidents on college campuses. But the lawmakers say they are seeking to support any students who experience violence or harassment on college campuses due to their heritage.