National Free Speech News & Commentary

Robby Soave
Reason Magazine

Excerpt: While other educational institutions pulled back on their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, the University of Michigan doubled down, spending nearly $250 million since 2016 on employees and programming that fill this ever-expanding niche.

The verdict? Spending hundreds of millions of dollars, and countless hours, specifically designing plans to make the campus more equitable, diverse, tolerant, and affirming of minority students…backfired utterly.

Eugene Volokh
Reason Magazine

Excerpt: Should be a very interesting program; registration is free, and you can attend virtually. The event is put on by Vanderbilt's The Future of Free Speech program, which is in turn led by free speech scholar and historian Jacob Mchangama.

Speakers will include novelist Salman Rushdie (attending virtually), Iranian journalist and women's rights activist Masih Alinejad, Taiwan's first digital minister Audrey Tang, Hong Kong democracy activist Nathan Law, Washington Post columnist Rana Ayyub, former ACLU president Nadine Strossen, New York Times columnist David French, The Economist senior editor James Bennett, and PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel, and many more.

Johanna Alonso
Inside Higher Ed

Excerpt: Pro-Palestinian protest activity has declined on college campuses this semester, at least compared to the tumultuous events of last spring.

But several of the demonstrations that resulted in student sanctions this fall have taken place at university career fairs, where activists gathered to protest weapons manufacturers and other companies with ties to the Israeli government or military. Many are the same companies that pro-Palestinian student protesters have demanded their universities divest from over the past year, albeit with little success.

Nicholas Confessore
New York Times Magazine

Excerpt: Leaders of the University of Michigan, one of America’s most prestigious public universities, like to say that their commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion is inseparable from the pursuit of academic excellence. Most students must take at least one class addressing “racial and ethnic intolerance and resulting inequality.” Doctoral students in educational studies must take an “equity lab” and a racial-justice seminar. Computer-science students are quizzed on microaggressions.

When Michigan inaugurated what it now calls D.E.I. 1.0, it intentionally placed itself in the vanguard of a revolution then reshaping American higher education. Around the country, college administrators were rapidly expanding D.E.I., convinced that such programs would help attract and retain a more diverse array of students and faculty.

Jacob Wendler, Lily Ogburn, William Tong, and Jerry Wu
Daily Northwestern

Excerpt: For the first time since student protests erupted on campus calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and University divestment from Israel during Spring Quarter, Northwestern President Michael Schill sat down with The Daily for a wide-ranging interview. He reflected on his handling of April’s encampment on Deering Meadow and discussed the University’s path forward.

Kate Hidalgo Bellows and Jasper Smith
Chronicle of Higher Education

Excerpt: Faculty members at Columbia University say they disagree with a pro-Palestinian student group’s recent endorsement of violence, but some support the group’s right to express that sentiment.

On October 8, Columbia University Apartheid Divest — or CUAD — revoked an apology it made in the spring on behalf of a student activist who posted a video of himself saying “Zionists don’t deserve to live” and “Be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.” The group, an unrecognized coalition of student organizations, said in last week’s statement that the apology was written by several organizers, not the student, and did not represent the group’s values.