Higher education continues to grapple with issues surrounding free expression within the academy—and the actions that protect or degrade it. From colleges and universities that adopt the Chicago Principles for freedom of expression, to those that enforce “safe spaces” and speech codes on campus, there is a tug of war over the safeguarding of viewpoint diversity and the open exchange of ideas. In this refreshing and instructive essay, Professor Joyce Lee Malcolm highlights the pivotal historical and contemporary events surrounding free speech, and outlines best practices necessary to ensure a campus culture dedicated to freedom of opinion and speech.
ACTA’s new guide for higher education trustees, Guarding the Freedom to Speak, Freedom to Hear by Professor Joyce Lee Malcolm of the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University, provides best practices to boards of trustees for securing intellectual freedom on the American college campus. It couldn’t have come a moment too soon. Since 2016 […]
Freedom of expression is imperiled on today’s college campuses. Citizens and educators alike are concerned about the number of shout-downs and disinvitations and their silencing effect on intellectual diversity. The use of speech codes, “safe spaces,” new rules demanding “trigger warnings,” and condemning “micro-aggressions” raises the specter of some new and unforeseen force in our history, […]
Polarizing political beliefs are nothing new on campus, but the tactics employed by supporters of the BDS movement create new cause for concern, from the politicization of curricula and academic associations to efforts to silence Israeli speakers to overtly anti-Semitic behavior on campus. In a new essay, ACTA renews its call for the protection of […]
The Mississippi House of Representatives adopted a bill today to protect the rights of college students to speak freely about the causes and issues they hold dear. The bill codifies existing federal case law for the state of Mississippi to avoid expensive litigation for public universities and colleges. “The last place on earth we should […]
Free speech advocates were enraged when Middlebury College students in 2017 drowned out a planned talk by the author Charles Murray, whose writings many consider racist. The students’ chants prevented Murray from speaking. Some protesters surrounded and jumped on his car after he was ushered out of the lecture hall. Conservative lawmakers, academics and other observers pointed to that […]
As a former student protester from the ’60s, I believe there is no better place for open debate and free expression than the campus quad. I fully support America’s youth exploring outlandish ideas because I believe our values can withstand the comparisons and will be stronger because of them. But, what’s happening on our campuses […]
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