Category: Free Speech Wins
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Stanford tweaks institutional neutrality policy
According to the Stanford Report, the campus tweaked its institutional neutrality and free speech policies. The new institutional policy reads: When speaking for the institution, Stanford University leaders and administrators should not express an opinion on political and social controversies, unless these matters directly affect the mission of the university or implicate its legal obligations.…
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Harvard FAS will replace DEI statements with service statement
The Crimson reports that Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences will no longer require DEI statements of faculty candidates: [Dean of Faculty Affairs and Planning] Zipser wrote that she and FAS Dean Hopi E. Hoekstra “made this change in response to feedback from numerous faculty members” who expressed concern that existing requirements were “too narrow…
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Harvard didn’t plagiarize Chicago’s Kalven approach
In the Report on Institutional Voice in the University, the Institutional Voice working group wrote, the “university and its leaders should not…issue official statements about public matters that do not directly affect the university’s core function.”
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Citing Free Expression, Efficacy, MIT Drops DEI Statements
MSN reports: “MIT will no longer require diversity statements in its faculty-hiring process, making it the first elite university to abandon the practice.” MIT President Sally Kornbluth told the National Review, “We can build an inclusive environment in many ways, but compelled statements impinge on freedom of expression, and they don’t work.” This is significant…
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Bar-Yoshafat Event Held Without Incident
The Los Angeles Times reports: Three weeks after violence broke out at a private event organized by Jewish student groups at UC Berkeley and protested by pro-Palestinian demonstrators, the speech took place Monday and unfolded without issue.
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Pamela Paul on Institutional Neutrality
Pamela Paul writes in the New York Times: The temptation for universities to take a moral stand, especially in response to overheated campus sentiment, is understandable. But it’s a trap. When universities make it their mission to do the “right” thing politically, they’re effectively telling large parts of their communities — and the polarized country…
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Columbia Embraces Kalven
Jerry Coyne reports that Columbia University has endorsed the Kalven (institutional neutrality) principles—one of just four campuses to do so.
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Columbia Adopts Institutional Neutrality, Governance Resolution
In a 68-0 vote, Columbia’s Academic Senate adopted a resolution “Reconfirming our Commitment to the Principles of Academic Freedom and Shared Governance.” The Senate resolved: Columbia’s senate details the debate and discussion surrounding the adoption here. In the Senate minutes, one proponent of the resolution explained academic freedom as both creating rights and responsibilities: Sen.…
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Alivisatos on Campus Free Speech
University of Chicago President (and former Berkeley Professor) Paul Alivisatos wrote a message to campus extolling free speech as both a gift and a collective responsibility: Ours is a culture built upon a fundamental commitment to place evidence, reason, logic, and rigor over authority, tradition, ideology, or dogma. The University can only achieve this vision…
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Jenny Martinez on Free Speech
On March 9th, 2023, students at Stanford disrupted a talk by Judge Kyle Duncan. In response, then Dean Jenny Martinez penned a detailed memo explaining Stanford Law’s commitment to free speech. In August 2023, Martinez became Stanford’s Provost.