Can Universities Coexist with Free Speech?

[rangerrebew]

January 14, 2024
Can Universities Coexist with Free Speech?
By Stuart N. Brotman

In the wake of the Hamas-Israel conflict and its aftermath, major university presidents have demonstrated a willingness — or notable reticence — to speak out amid the anger expressed by faculty, students, alumni, and donors.  The perfect storm of campus unrest has brought forth a new national debate — namely, how can universities support free speech principles during the current turbulent times and beyond?

Renewed interest is being focused on the 1967 Kalven Report at the University of Chicago, which was updated in a 2014 report there by a Committee on Freedom of Expression chaired by Geoffrey R. Stone, the Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor of Law.

Professor Stone is one the nation’s pre-eminent First Amendment scholars, and also a former university provost.  He has a unique vantage point for both the theory and practice of setting workable free speech boundaries on college campuses.  In 2021, we discussed critical ideas that now are receiving increased attention.  Our conversation is especially useful to consider amid today’s headlines.  It can help illuminate a pathway toward restoring free inquiry and free speech throughout higher education — articulating principles that are being tested almost daily as new expressive landmines appear.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/01/can_universities_coexist_with_free_speech.html

[The_Reader_David]

What is it with headline writers these days? 

The content of the article is more or less that without free speech there can't be a university, and for the same reason that the government should not censor disfavored views (and thanks to the Founders recognizing that as a desideratum, thanks to the First Amendment may not do so), universities as institutions should not promulgate official positions on issues of political controversy -- doing so would tend to suppress free debate among faculty and students.

The headline doesn't match the article.   (The same nonsense with bad headline writers mis-matching article contend has been showing up on the British website UnHerd lately.)