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October 30, 2023
To Princetonians for Free Speech subscribers, members and friends,
It has been a very eventful month since our September Monthly Newsletter. Here once again you will find our most important features, events, updates, articles you don’t want to miss and more. Please let us know what you think HERE.
Princetonians for Free Speech Joins Amicus Brief asking the US Supreme Court to hear a Bias Response Team Case.
Last month Princetonians for Free Speech joined the Alumni Free Speech Alliance and eight of its members in submitting a “friend of the court” amicus brief to the Supreme Court of the United States. In it we argue that the court should agree to hear the caseSpeech First v. Sands. The case challenges whether Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University’s Bias Incident Response Team violated students’ first amendment rights through its collecting and storing of records related to students’ expression protected by the First Amendment. PFS’s interest in this case derives directly from the similar bias response system in operation on Princeton’s campus. We believe these systems, which have proliferated at colleges in recent years, serve to chill student expression and promote a climate of fear.
You can see AFSA’S press release which includes the list of alumni groups submitting the amicus brief HERE.The full case including Judge Harvie Wilkinson's dissenting opinion in the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals is HERE.
These bias response systems accept complaints, often anonymous, about student speech acknowledged to be protected by the First Amendment. The database of complaints is put into students’ permanent records without notice, opportunity to respond, or due process. The “bias response team” (BRT) most often consists of administrators in university DEI offices. The targeted students may be called in by these administrators for counseling or other possible actions. In Virginia Tech’s case, the disciplinary team includes representatives from the office of student conduct, and shockingly, the Virginia Tech Police Department.
On behalf of students, Speech First sued Virginia Tech alleging that the bias response system was an infringement of their First Amendment rights and served to chill protected speech. In June, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that Speech First lacked standing to sue Virginia Tech, with the majority ruling that the bias response team’s collection of records for non-disciplinary purposes did not give rise to a constitutional claim. The resulting split between federal circuits on the core question impels a need for the Supreme Court to adjudicate the matter, to enable a nationwide resolution on this threat to open expression at universities.
Excerpt: “…the use of bias reporting systems has become pervasive across American college and university campuses and these systems create a climate of fear and intimidation that causes many students to self-censor and discourages constitutionally protected speech. These bias reporting systems have no place at a university whose defining purpose as a place of learning and human fulfillment can only be achieved through a steadfast commitment to free speech."
FIRE weighs in HERE.
Co-sponsored by PFS and the James Madison Program’s Initiative on Freedom of Thought, Inquiry, and Expression
Heather Mac Donald is the Thomas W. Smith Fellow atthe Manhattan Institute, a contributing editor of City Journal, and a New York Times bestselling author. She is a recipient of the 2005 Bradley Prize. Mac Donald’s work at City Journal has covered a range of topics, including higher education, immigration, policing, homelessness and homeless advocacy, criminal-justice reform, and race relations. Her writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, and The New Criterion. Mac Donald’s newest book is When Race Trumps Merit.
(from left): Nadine Strossen, a former president of the ACLU; Mary Dana Hinton, President of Hollins University; Cathy Cohen, Distinguished Service Professor, University of Chicago; Paul Alivisatos, President of The University of Chicago, and Jonathan Haidt, professor at NYU Stern School of Business.
The Day Tomorrow Began: University of Chicago’s Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression
It’s no surprise that the University of Chicago has made by far the biggest, boldest and most serious move of any university in the country to confront the crisis of free speech and academic freedom at American universities. Chicago ranks #1 on FIRE’s survey for a reason.
On October 5-6, the University of Chicago launched a new permanent entity, theForum for Free Inquiry and Expression, with the mission to build on the university’s historic mission to “promote the understanding, practice and advancement of free and open discourse.” To give a sense of how important the university leadership regards this initiative, consider its signature series,The Day Tomorrow Began. It presents what the university considers its contribution to the monumental breakthroughs in human understanding in all fields – nuclear physics, cancer research, ancient civilizations, black holes.The Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression is the newest addition to this list. Can Princeton, Harvard, Yale and other leading American universities respond to the crisis in free inquiry and expression with such seriousness?
See Leslie Spencer’s article for PFS on the launch HERE.
See The Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression website HERE.
See the launch event details HERE.
Introducing the Westminster Declaration
One hundred and thirty-eight artists, public intellectuals and journalists demand governments dismantle the Censorship Industrial Complex.
MIT Free Speech Alliance 2023 Conference – A Resounding Success
This September 14 event pulled in a packed crowd for a full day of panel discussions with students, faculty and administrators, and included a keynote address by the renowned MIT graduate and Brown economics ProfessorGlenn Loury. It included an Alumni Free Speech Alliance Roundtable of alumni representatives from Harvard, Princeton, Cornell and UNC. See the MFSA’s inaugural conference recap, photos and full program HERE. Watch Glenn Loury’s keynote address on the MIT Free Speech Alliance YouTube channel HERE.
On October 27, 2023, PFS partner theAmerican Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) presented the 18th Philip Merrill Award for Outstanding Contributions to Liberal Arts Education to Professor Alan Charles Kors, theHenry Charles Lea Professor Emeritus of European History, University of Pennsylvania and co-founder of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. See details of the ATHENA Roundtable and Philip Merrill Award Gala at the ACTA website HERE.
Is There a Left Way Back from Woke?
What can the Left do to confront the problems that free speech is facing? Can the Left escape identitarian extremism and recapture the progressive ideals it once professed?Last month the London-basedFree Speech Union held a panel discussion from the perspective of the Left, featuring political scientist Umut Ozkirimli, author of the recently released book Cancelled: The Left Way Back from Woke. The starting point: Science, truth and the values of free speech and democracy require the left to work across partisan lines to defend these values. Here’s a taste of this excellent discussion of identitarian “woke” culture by leading left-wing intellectuals.
“This is not real left politics. These Ideologies are the product of elite North American campuses. They are distinctively North American, and distinctively upper class.”
“Identitarianism is not left -- it is reactionary. There is no difference between the left and the far right on this… what passes as the left and the far right are in fact Siamese twins, [the] “Stalinist version of progressive politics.”
Watch the entire event HERE.
By Gregg Lukianoff and Rikki Schlott
“The good news is that we can beat back this threat to democracy through better citizenship. The Canceling of the American Mind offers concrete steps toward reclaiming a free speech culture, with materials specifically tailored for parents, teachers, business leaders, and everyone who uses social media. We can all show intellectual humility and promote the essential American principles of individuality, resilience, and open mindedness.”
The End of Race in Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America
by Coleman Hughes
“Through careful argument, Hughes dismantles harmful beliefs about race, proving that reverse racism will not atone for past wrongs and showing why race-based policies will lead only to the illusion of racial equity. By fixating on race, we lose sight of what it really means to be anti-racist. A racially just, colorblind society is possible. Hughes gives us the intellectual tools to make it happen.” Pre-order HERE.
Black Academics Square Off on Affirmative Action
Glenn Loury vs. Randall Kennedy
This 9-minute clip in which two black scholars square off on Affirmative Action is a master class in how to debate someone with whom you disagree. EconomistGlenn Loury and legal scholarRandall Kennedy debate whether race-based affirmative action is necessary.
Ayad Akhtar, Pulitzer-prize winning playwright and novelist, and president of PEN America
“How to deal with the wrongs of history and how to frame changes within a social body to address these neglected and maybe subjected populations? I just think [restricting freedom of speech] is a mistake, … there isn’t really an alternative, you just have to defend the right for people to say stuff you don’t like. It may be unfortunate, but that’s the case…. We have to figure out how we can frame and make compelling to the younger generation an argument for hearing points of view that theythink they don’t agree with. They might actually agree with more of what they don’t want to hear if they understood what they were really listening to.”
In conversation with University of Chicago Board Chair David Rubenstein at the launch of University of Chicago’sForum for Free Inquiry and Expression, October 6, 2023
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To Princetonians for Free Speech Subscribers, Members and Friends,
As the academic year begins at Princeton and on campuses throughout the country, an extraordinary array of newsworthy events has already occurred. In the wake of last semester’s sustained campus disruption and a contentious national election around the corner, this may be just the beginning. We start not with the usual one, but three Special Features.
To Princetonians for Free Speech Subscribers, Members and Friends,
This week is Orientation for new students at Princeton. Students, faculty and staff are, no doubt, on edge. The encampment on Cannon Green and the arrests for criminal trespass of Clio Hall are fresh in everyone’s memory. Despite clear and intentional actions that broke Princeton’s rules of conduct and its core commitment to free expression and respectful disagreement, the administration struggled to respond clearly.
This moment requires clarity from Princeton’s leaders on the rights and responsibilities concerning free speech, academic freedom, respect for viewpoint diversity and rules of civil discourse.
Princeton boasts robust free speech protections and rules around peaceful protest. But principles and rules “on paper” are not enough. Specific actions need to be taken to regain the practice of a true liberal education, which is by necessity rooted in free expression. Diverse perspectives are what empower students to engage in challenging ideas and learn from respectful disagreement. Threats and harassment are not part of what free expression means. Princeton has a long way to go to embed core principles into the everyday experience and outlook of students, faculty and administrators. As students return to campus, we present The PFS Top Ten – the ten most important reforms Princeton’s leadership should consider.
To Princetonians for Free Speech Subscribers, members and friends,
While the nation is gripped by the uncertainty of the Presidential race, what’s happening in higher education may not be a focus of attention. But plenty is going on, even in July. Four surveys published this month track trends that have direct impact at Princeton and most universities in the country. The surveys featured here measure the following: 1) the radical decline of public confidence in higher education, 2) the dramatic rise in student and faculty concern about censorship and self-censorship post-October 7, 3) the dismantling of DEI programs, and 4) the lack of student knowledge of their country’s government and history. As universities including Princeton prepare to welcome students to campus next month, the results of these surveys will shape campus experience.
We also remind our subscribers of PFS’s own survey published in June – the second annual poll of Princeton students. Follow the link to see the results, and PFS’s recommendations for improving the campus free speech and academic freedom climate at Princeton: Princetonians Student Free Speech Survey Shows More Work Needs To Be Done.
