The free speech pledge that every college should sign

The University of Chicago has pioneered a declaration of free speech for students and faculty that, in these times of trigger warnings and microaggressions, should serve as a model for every college in the U.S.

The Chicago Statement on Free Expression comes in the midst of an ongoing cultural shift that has seen campuses move away from their once-venerated positions as bastions of free thinking and free speech, and toward a new paradigm of insularity, groupthink and coddling for the close-minded.

Although UC formulated its statement in January, it has more recently been adopted as a model for other academic institutions that see a storm brewing over the role universities will (or won’t) continue to play in the free exchange of ideas. The Foundation for Individual Right in Education (FIRE) has condensed it into a brief declaration, and is inviting all colleges and universities to sign on.

FIRE’s version is short and sweet:

On January 6, 2015, the Committee on Freedom of Expression at the University of Chicago released a powerful new statement on the importance of freedom of expression on campus.

The statement guarantees “all members of the University community the broadest possible latitude to speak, write, listen, challenge, and learn” and makes clear that “it is not the proper role of the University to attempt to shield individuals from ideas and opinions they find unwelcome, disagreeable, or even deeply offensive.”

Princeton University and Purdue University adopted sections of the report as operative policy following its introduction in January. If colleges and universities nationwide follow Purdue, Princeton, and the University of Chicago’s excellent example, the now-commonplace censorship of student and faculty expression would face a powerful new challenge.

I support this statement and ask that my alma mater endorse it.

The statement can be signed by private individuals as well as university representatives acting in their official roles.

The need for colleges to take a stand on free speech isn’t an abstract conceit. In a recent Washington Post editorial, UC professor Geoffrey R. Stone and Will Creeley, FIRE vice president for legal and public advocacy, teamed up to point out the depressing turn that free speech rights have taken:

The past academic year offers a depressing number of examples of institutions of higher education failing to live up to their core mission. At Northwestern University, for example, Professor Laura Kipnis endured a months-long Title IX investigation for publishing an essay in the Chronicle of Higher Education in which she discussed a high-profile sexual assault case. Just a few months later, her fellow professor, Alice Dreger, courageously resigned in protest over Northwestern’s censorship of a faculty-edited medical journal.

In a similar vein, Louisiana State University fired Professor Teresa Buchanan after nearly two decades of service for her occasional use of profanity, which the university suddenly deemed “sexual harassment,” and Chicago State University enacted a new cyberbullying policy to silence a blog that was critical of university leadership.

At Iowa State University, administrators censored T-shirts created by the university’s student chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. The Regents of the University of California are considering adopting a “Statement of Principles Against Intolerance” that would ban “derogatory language reflecting stereotypes or prejudice.” Other institutions are considering banning so-called “microaggressions” or requiring “trigger warnings” to protect students from having to confront potentially upsetting ideas and subjects. Still others have withdrawn invitations to speakers who have taken positions that some members of the community find unpleasant, offensive or wrong-headed — a practice President Obama criticized this month, saying that leaving students “coddled and protected from different points of view” is “not the way we learn.”

To sign the statement — or, better still, to encourage your local college or university administrators to sign — FIRE’s brand-new landing page to promote the initiative makes a great starting point.

Spread the word.

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