The Glover Gate at American University, reading "The American University"

Suppressed Student Speech at American University

BY THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY AAUP CHAPTER The following statement was issued January 29, 2024. In 2022, American University reaffirmed its commitment to freedom of expression, stating in relevant part: When we engage in inquiry, we may have to confront truths that are unpleasant and ideas and perspectives with which we disagree or even find loathsome. When we…

view of Harvard Yard with dormitories and Harvard Computer Society building with gray winter sky and bare trees

Harvard’s Misguided Guidance on Protest and Dissent

BY JOHN K. WILSON On January 19, 2024, PEN America held a major summit on free expression at Harvard University. But it seems top administrators at Harvard are the ones who really need a lesson on the topic, since that same day they announced a new “Guidance on Protest and Dissent” that restricts the right…

View from window on the University of Iowa campus at sunset shows messages in blue and pink chalk before the steps of a building with an Iowa flag.

Historians Must Affirm the Right to Learn

BY CORY JAMES YOUNG I was having a conversation with a graduate student in my department about a possible collaboration when we noticed the television. One of our colleagues was on the Iowa City news providing historical context about the ongoing crisis in Palestine and Israel. Then, even more unexpectedly, a student from my previous…

Thoughts on the “Heckler’s Veto”

BY HANK REICHMAN The so-called “heckler’s veto” is much in the higher ed news these days, with Inside Higher Ed this week running a piece, “Shouting Down Speakers Who Offend,” focusing on incidents at SUNY Albany, Stanford, and San Francisco State Universities. The Stanford incident has prompted two prior posts to this blog (here and here).…

Bogazici University building at dusk with trees in the foreground

Help Turkish Students Recover From Earthquakes

POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN This blog has regularly posted items in support of faculty and students resisting attacks on academic freedom at universities in Turkey (see, for examples, here, here, and here; see also from Academe magazine, Fall 2019, here).  Now Turkish universities are facing another crisis: the aftermath of the devastating earthquakes that hit…

student bent over

Universities Must Help the New “Lost Generation”

BY HARVEY J. GRAFF Growing up was always hard to do. It’s getting harder, and universities now are doing little to help the new “lost generation.” Experts on children, youth, and college students never tire of superficial generalizations about the ease or difficulty of growing up over time. They seldom define terms, specify ages, present…

Students stand outside of classroom

The Fallacies of the “Shadow Curriculum”

BY HARVEY J. GRAFF We live in a new age of division. Universities are so often centers of differences, contradictions, and clashes between knowledge and ignorance. One revealing site is the false opposition of the faculty and the—to faculty and academic administration—second-class “professionals” in departments of student affairs and student life. Critically, this dichotomy parallels…

FBI poster for members of Weatherman faction of Students for a Democratic Society

Healy v. James, Fifty Years Later

BY JOHN K. WILSON Fifty years ago, on June 26, 1972, the US Supreme Court issued one of the most important rulings protecting free speech on campus in the case of Healy v. James. As the conservative Supreme Court has proven this week, even a fifty-year precedent is not safe if five justices decide to…

Screenshot of John Wilson's article

The Self-Censorship Problem

BY JOHN K. WILSON Yesterday, I published an opinion essay at Inside Higher Ed titled, “The Inevitable Problem of Self-Censorship.” I argue that surveys showing that a majority of college students report self-censorship are not meaningful ways to understand repression on campus because everyone self-censors to some degree. These surveys are also easy to manipulate.…

Scrabble tiles spelling out "free speech."

Are College Students Censoring Themselves?

POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN Michael Hobbes, a journalist based in Berlin, has a substack site, “Confirm My Choices,” where he regularly posts commentary on a variety of topics.  Today he posted a piece, “Lies, Damn Lies and ‘Self-Censorship’ Statistics,” that really hit the nail on the head about the much-ballyhooed “Campus Free Speech Crisis.”  I’m…