This report features ten best practices, gleaned from colleges and universities across the country, for promoting the free exchange of ideas in and out of the classroom. Since intellectual diversity is at the core of any true university education, the report commends institutions that have taken action, urges them to keep at it, and exhorts other boards to play their proper leadership role-—working, of course, with administrators, faculty, alumni, and donors-—in guaranteeing and enriching the intellectual environment on campus.
A committee of faculty members from across the University of Chicago was convened by President Robert J. Zimmer and Provost Eric D. Isaacs, chaired by Geoffrey Stone, Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor of Law. They were charged with crafting a statement “articulating the University’s overarching commitment to free, robust, and uninhibited debate and deliberation […]
This guide for trustees reports on the dangerous decline of academic freedom and intellectual diversity on college campuses. The foreword, by Benno Schmidt, chairman of the CUNY Board of Trustees and former president of Yale, comes at a time when duly-invited graduation speakers are made unwelcome, campus speech codes threaten the free exchange of ideas, […]
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 […]
South Dakota State University is one of the 40 colleges and universities featured in a new report showcasing best practices from across the country to protect the free exchange of ideas on campuses. The report is the cornerstone of a national campaign by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni to reinvigorate the intellectual life […]
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Academic Senate is calling for an independent investigation into the UNL administration’s recent decision to disinvite Bill Ayers. In doing so, the senate aims to develop a set of guidelines to determine how and when to cancel speaking invitations in the future. While some may wonder why anyone would still care […]
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 […]
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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