National Free Speech News & Commentary

Commentary: Grant Terminated

Researchers Impacted by Federal Grant Terminations April 03, 2025 1 min read

Researchers Impacted by Federal Grant Terminations
Inside Higher Ed

Excerpt: Billions of dollars in federal scientific research grants have been rescinded or suspended since the start of the Trump administration.

Below, 16 researchers across nine different research areas who have had their federal grants terminated since the start of the Trump administration share just a few of the thousands of stories behind these cuts.

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Differentiating Colleges and Universities In A Tax On Endowment Income

by Ed Yingling '70 April 02, 2025 10 min read

by Ed Yingling '70

Washington insiders believe it is very likely that a significant increase in the tax rate on university endowment income will be enacted this year. They cite the need for additional tax revenue to offset the Trump tax cut agenda and the antipathy of many Republicans to what has been happening on campuses for the last two years. They also focus on the fact that then-Senator JD Vance introduced a bill in the last Congress imposing a 35 percent tax on endowment income.

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Commentary: I’m Cornell’s President. We’re Not Afraid of Debate and Dissent.

Michael I. Kotlikoff March 31, 2025 1 min read

Michael I. Kotlikoff
New York Times

Excerpt: Cornell University recently hosted an event that any reputable P.R. firm would surely have advised against. On a calm campus, in a semester unroiled by protest, we chose to risk stirring the waters by organizing a panel discussion that brought together Israeli and Palestinian voices with an in-person audience open to all.

The week before, I extended a personal invitation to our student community, explaining that open inquiry “is the antidote to corrosive narratives” and is what enables us “to see and respect other views, work together across differences and conceive of solutions to intractable problems.”

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Commentary: The End of College Life

Ian Bogost March 30, 2025 1 min read

Ian Bogost
The Atlantic

Excerpt: The start of spring semester is a hopeful time on college campuses. Students fill the quads and walkways, wearing salmon shorts or strappy tank tops. Music plays; Frisbees fly. As a career academic, I have been a party to this catalog-cover scene for more than 30 years running. It looks made-up, but it is real. Every year in the United States, almost 20 million people go to college, representing every race, ethnicity, and social class. This is college in America—or it has been for a long time.

But college life as we know it may soon come to an end.

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Universities Should Challenge Trump's Speech-Based Deportations of Students in Court

Ilya Somin March 30, 2025 1 min read

Ilya Somin
Volokh Conspiracy, Reason Magazine

Excerpt: The Trump administration has been detaining and trying to deport immigrant and foreign students for their First-Amendment protected speech. That includes even speech that does not actually support terrorism, as in the case of a Tufts graduate student detained for an anti-Israel op ed that, however flawed, does not endorse Hamas terrorism, or indeed even mention it. Such detention and deportation is an assault on freedom of speech, and violates the First Amendment, which has no exception for immigration restrictions.

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The Death of Debate: How Power Is Killing Free Speech in America

John Avlon and Greg Lukianoff March 30, 2025 1 min read

John Avlon and Greg Lukianoff
How to Fix It with John Avlon, The Bulwark

Excerpt: What happens when universities stop defending debate—and politicians start punishing dissent? John Avlon interviews Greg Lukianoff, President of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) and co-author of The Coddling of the American Mind. They unpack the escalating war over free speech—from college campuses to the courtroom—and explore how institutions meant to protect liberty are now leading the charge to suppress it.

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