Category: News
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BIFI Statement on Initial Strategic Plan: Excellence is Inseparable from Freedom of Inquiry
We write as the executive council of the Berkeley Initiative for Freedom of Inquiry (BIFI), a group of Berkeley faculty representing diverse viewpoints and disciplines who share a common commitment to free inquiry, academic freedom, shared governance, and the integrity of scholarly judgment. We have brief comment on the draft Strategic Plan. We recommend that…
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BIFI EC Statement on Brandeis Settlement
Statement by the Executive Council, Berkeley Initiative for Freedom of Inquiry In response to the UC Berkeley settlement with the Brandeis Center, we write to endorse the statement by the Academic Senate’s Divisional Council (DIVCO) reasserting faculty authority regarding curricular and disciplinary matters, and the Academic Freedom committee (ACFR) Recommended Procedural Changes to Faculty Code…
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UC-wide, UC Faculty for Free Inquiry Forms
The University of California Initiative for Free Inquiry (UCIFI) is a faculty-led network dedicated to advancing free inquiry and academic freedom across the UC system. We believe that the pursuit of knowledge depends on a culture that welcomes disagreement, protects the free exchange of ideas, and upholds the university’s public mission of truth-seeking and intellectual…
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BerkeleySide Reports on Brandeis Settlement
BerkeleySide reports on the Berkeley settlement with the Brandeis Center, quoting BIFI’s Chris Hoofnagle: “Berkeley can say ‘We won because we didn’t adopt [the definition],’ but the Brandeis Center can say they won because the view of what is antisemitism will now be titrated through that document,” said Chris Hoofnagle, secretary of the Berkeley Initiative…
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BIFI EC Letter on the UCOP STEM Congress
Katherine S. NewmanProvost and Executive Vice PresidentUCOP Academic Affairs Dear Provost Newman, We are a group of Berkeley faculty representing diverse viewpoints and disciplines who share a common commitment to free inquiry, academic freedom, shared governance, and the integrity of scholarly judgment. We write regarding the Congress on Math Preparation and STEM Pathways and recent…
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Dean Chemerinsky & Chancellor Gillman on Campus Speech
Berkeley Law Dean Chemerinsky and Chancellor Gilman have published Campus Speech and Academic Freedom: A Guide for Difficult Times (Yale University Press 2026). The book is a must read for understanding the differences between academic freedom and free speech and it has detailed analyses of recent campus speech conflicts.
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A College Can’t Be Neutral. But Why Not Try?
William Fithian and Daniel Sargent published a response to Brian Soucek’s essay “Universities Can’t Be Neutral” (WSJ, Jan 3, 2026). (Appeared in the January 9, 2026, print edition as ‘A College Can’t Be Neutral. But Why Not Try?’.)
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Reges Wins Speech Case at Ninth Circuit
“The public university occupies a central place in the law of the First Amendment. The First Amendment protects the free exchange of ideas. The university is a primary generator and repository of ideas, a place in which unfettered academic debate and open discourse promotes the search for truth and prepares students for a discordant world…
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UC Riverside Faculty Call for Common Defense
Earlier this month, the UC Riverside Division of the Academic Senate adopted a resolution calling for the creation of Mutual Academic Defense Compacts among universities. The proposal urges the University of California system—and California higher education more broadly—to develop formal, collective mechanisms to defend academic freedom, free expression, institutional autonomy, and the research enterprise in…
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BIFI letter on Peyrin Kao disciplinary case
Dear Chancellor Lyons, EVCP Hermalin, and Chair Stacey: As faculty dedicated to improving the climate for free inquiry at Berkeley, we write to express our concern about the recent discipline of lecturer Peyrin Kao, which raises procedural and substantive questions about academic freedom. We are concerned that at least one of the actions for which…