Anti-Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) legislation, cancel culture, attacks on DEI scholars, objections to controversial campus speakers — there’s a lot happening on college campuses across the United States right now in terms of free speech, freedom of expression and academic freedom. Knowing that objections to freedom of thought and inquiry can have detrimental implications, the Institute for Citizens & Scholars launched a new project called The Campus Call. This new initiative, which is part of College Presidents for Civic Preparedness, brings together college presidents who are fiercely committed to academic freedom and safeguarding the rights of students and faculty to learn, to explore, to engage, and to disagree. These presidents want to “urgently spotlight, uplift, and reemphasize the principles of critical inquiry and civic discourse on their campuses.” The presidents see the effort as key to amplifying “higher education’s role in preparing young people to be the empowered citizens.
College Presidents for Civil Preparedness and those presidents who support The Campus Call hail from 15 different colleges and universities. These institutions are highly diverse, including small liberal arts colleges, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Ivy League institutions, large public flagship universities, and faith-based institutions. More specifically, they include: Benedict College, Claremont McKenna College, Cornell University, DePaul University, Duke University, James Madison University, Rollins College, Rutgers University, University of Notre Dame, University of Richmond, Wellesley College, Wesleyan University, and the University of Pittsburgh.
The Campus Call focuses on encouraging students to:
- Pursue knowledge beyond their comfort zone, challenging existing beliefs and assumptions;
- Reach informed decisions based on evidence and reasoned analysis;
- Develop a deeper understanding of self and one’s own values while potentially gaining respect, empathy, and appreciation for those with differing values and views;
- Feel a sense of civic responsibility, advocate for positive change, and contribute meaningfully to their community; and
- Express ideas freely but recognize that doing so doesn’t guarantee approval or immunity from consequences.
Colleges and universities involved in The Campus Call are planning activities that speak to the foci above. For example, historically Black Benedict College in Columbia, South Carolina is planning a yearlong campaign focused on free expression and inquiry. The institution is calling it #perspective, and it will include messaging and campus programming. According to Benedict College president Roslyn Artis, “We are committed to developing critical thinkers who will question, challenge, engage, and serve their communities in a meaningful and equitable way. Students are inclined to speak in sound bites, so we have to ask: What do you base that on? Where did you read that or hear that? Is it a person that you know or value? Is that your closely held opinion or is that something you saw or heard? … Helping students unpack the sources and uses of information and be thoughtful about how they share and how they distribute that across our community is important.”
Likewise, Cornell University, located in Ithaca, New York, is planning campus gatherings focused on free expression and academic freedom, including debates among invited speakers who model civil discourse, exhibitions, and performances. Cornell University president Martha Pollack shared, “It is critical to our mission as a university to think deeply about freedom of expression and the challenges that result from assaults on it, which today come from both ends of the political spectrum. Learning from difference, learning to engage with difference and learning to communicate across difference are key parts of a Cornell education. Free expression and academic freedom are the bedrock not just of the university, but of democracy.”
Duke University, located in Durham, North Carolina, is hosting a First Amendment Clinic, which provides law students the chance to work with clients grappling with free expression matters. The university is also launching a faculty seminar “promoting civic discussion over sensitive topics in the classroom.” According to Duke University president Vincent Price, “One of Duke’s most cherished values is unfettered debate and deliberation, granting wide freedom of expression to those in our campus community. With that freedom comes the responsibility to foster scholarly discourse, not offer a platform for polemics, and to ensure ideas are tested, challenged, defended and debated in a way that advances knowledge, rather than obscures or impedes it.”
According to the Institute for Citizens & Scholars, “Colleges and universities are among the few places in the United States today where people from remarkably different backgrounds, cultures, and ideologies come together to wrestle with the complexity of what it means to be a democratic community.”
Jonathan Zimmerman, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA, and a staunch advocate of free speech on college campuses is pleased that college presidents are taking a stand on the issues of speech, expression and academic freedom. He shared with me: “Somehow, over the past decade or so, free expression got coded as a “Republican” or ‘conservative’ value.” Speaking from his personal experiences, Zimmerman noted, “Students are often surprised to discover I’m a lifelong and loyal Democrat, because I’m also a zealous supporter of free speech and exchange. I see nothing—literally, nothing—contradictory about these dual commitments.” However, Zimmerman has found that “plenty of people DO see them as contradictory” — including many of his students. Why? Zimmerman believes that misperceptions around free speech are the result, in part, of the “successful (and often cynical) way that outlets like Fox News have invoked free speech on behalf of [Donald] Trump and his alleged crimes.” However, he adds, “it’s also because the American liberal academy lost the plot on free speech, essentially ceding it to the political right. The Citizens and Scholars Project is a good first step in winning it back. Bravo.”
Walter Kimbrough, former president of historically Black Dillard University and Philander Smith University, agrees that The Campus Call is a good idea, and that it gives current presidents an opportunity to engage with retired presidents who have been doing this work through Pen America and the Bipartisan Policy Center. However, he cautioned, “At some point though we’ve got to take this message from campus to communities and to lawmakers who are pushing regressive policies. That’s the hard part. If we can get people like a [Ron] DeSantis and his higher education team to engage in conversations with presidents and faculty rather than simply think they know best and make laws, we might have a chance.”
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