The Future of Speech on Campus

Ethan Bueno de Mesquita December 21, 2023 1 min read

Ethan Bueno de Mesquita
Boston Review

Excerpt: While intolerance is a matter of culture, policy and administrative actions play a role in creating the culture. When university leaders who enthusiastically made statements about Black Lives Matter, knowing that such statements would likely discourage free expression of dissenting views on related issues, later assert a deep commitment to free expression concerning genocide of the Jews, they appear to be cynically picking and choosing their principles to suit short-run exigencies.

In this sense, university leaders are lying in a bed of their own making. I suspect at this point many wish they could give something like my First Amendment answer but cannot without facing charges of hypocrisy. One important question, then, is how they might get from here to there.

Click here for link to full article

Leave a comment

Comments will be approved before showing up.


Also in National Free Speech News & Commentary

A National Call to Action to University Presidents and Governing Boards
A National Call to Action to University Presidents and Governing Boards

Linda E. McMahon, Secretary of Education  August 06, 2026 1 min read

For the good of the Nation, university leadership must seize this occasion to drive essential reforms—a process some began by adopting positions of institutional neutrality and improving policies related to campus protests. Before the end of 2026, I call on every postsecondary institution to describe to the American public your commitments to rigorous teaching, pathbreaking research, and national service—commitments that make our universities a bedrock institution of the American republic.

Read More
New Compact Shows Resistance Works, but Fight for Higher Ed Isn’t Over
New Compact Shows Resistance Works, but Fight for Higher Ed Isn’t Over

Todd Wolfson and Randi Weingarten August 06, 2026 1 min read

Now the administration is back with Compact 2.0, formally titled "A National Call to Action to University Presidents and Governing Boards." It includes some rhetorical flourishes intended to make it seem less threatening to teaching, learning and research. But make no mistake: It once again asks colleges and universities to align themselves with a far-right agenda at the expense of students’ education and the public’s well-being.

Read More
‘Radical Reform’: Trump Official Explains New Plan to Get Colleges to Change
‘Radical Reform’: Trump Official Explains New Plan to Get Colleges to Change

Francie Diep  August 06, 2026 1 min read

Read More