Freedom of Expression
Promoting Dialogue, Debate, and Free Speech on College Campus
This call to action provides college trustees with proactive steps to foster the culture of free expression that is so vital to a liberal arts education.
On April 1, 2022, ACTA hosted a webinar to introduce alumni free speech advocates to our College Debates and Discourse Program, which brings parliamentary-style debates to college campuses. The event is part of our ongoing work, in partnership with the Alumni Free Speech Alliance, to support alumni groups promoting free speech and viewpoint diversity at their alma maters.
ACTA’s College Debates and Discourse Program was established in 2018 as a partnership with the grassroots organization Braver Angels and the student group BridgeUSA. To date, we have conducted nearly 100 campus and classroom debates, engaging thousands of students. The debates, guided by a parliamentary-type chair, teach students to respectfully voice and listen to opinions on a polarizing political or social topic.
Emily Koons Jae, director of the Fund for Academic Renewal at ACTA, hosted the webinar, which featured Doug Sprei, ACTA’s director of campus partnerships and multimedia and director of the College Debates and Discourse Program, and Chandler Skinner, program associate for Braver Angels.
We hope this resource inspires alumni advocates to host formal debates at their alma mater. If you are interested, please contact Doug Sprei at dsprei@GoACTA.org.
This call to action provides college trustees with proactive steps to foster the culture of free expression that is so vital to a liberal arts education.
ACTA's Doug Sprei interviews Paul Carrese, acclaimed founder of the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University. Professor Carrese shares the underpinnings of this influential program, which aims to prepare the next generation of young leaders through the study of great works of civic, economic, political, and moral thought.
During spring semester 2021, ACTA and Braver Angels partnered with Professor Andrew Jason Cohen and a team of students of Georgia State University to launch a student-led debate on March 31. Conducted on Zoom, the event drew wide student participation around their chosen topic of deplatforming controversial speakers on college campuses. Our collaboration was so […]
Launched in 1995, we are the only organization that works with alumni, donors, trustees, and education leaders across the United States to support liberal arts education, uphold high academic standards, safeguard the free exchange of ideas on campus, and ensure that the next generation receives an intellectually rich, high-quality college education at an affordable price.
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