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Harvard May Consider Institutional Neutrality
The Harvard Crimson reports: Interim Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 is expected to announce a working group that will consider a policy of institutional neutrality, a move that comes just months after the University became embroiled in controversy over its response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
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Is Institutional Neutrality Catching On?
The CHE reports: Amid a polarized political climate and debates about the war in Gaza and hot-button social issues like abortion rights, university leaders’ statements about current events have attracted attention and scrutiny. A small but growing number of institutions are responding to the pressure by swearing off such statements altogether.
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Gutkin: The Hyperbolic Style in American Academe
CHE essayist Len Gutkin writes: …Over the last several years, a curious species of overheated activist prose has proved attractive to scholars across the university. Call it the hyperbolic style in American academe.
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Columbia Embraces Kalven
Jerry Coyne reports that Columbia University has endorsed the Kalven (institutional neutrality) principles—one of just four campuses to do so.
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Columbia Creates Faculty Academic Freedom Council
Over 70 faculty have come together to create the Columbia Academic Freedom Council. The group endorsed these responsibilities: I. Responsibility to protect academic freedom. Like many on campus, we believe that the liberal ideal of academic freedom—the freedom to think, write, publish, and teach without restrictions in the course of our duties as scholars—is core…
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IIS to Host Yoel Inbar
Berkeley’s Institute of International Studies will host Yoel Inbar as part of its Berkeley Academic Freedom in a Global Perspective series. The talk, How Understanding Moral Thinking Can Help Us Understand Debates About Academic Freedom, is February 20th at 4 PM in 223 Philosophy Hall. Register here.
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Primacy of Teaching and Research
The WSJ reports that two Yale professors, Nicholas Christakis and Kate Stith, sent an email to faculty urging a refocus on academic endeavours. The email is not public, but the WSJ has reproduced parts of it: Yale faculty are the custodians of a system of values that is presently under threat from a number of…
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U. Chicago Free Speech Alliance
Alumni of University of Chicago are forming a new Free Speech Alliance.
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Gutkin: A Decade of Ideological Transformation Comes Undone
In a wide-ranging essay in the CHE, Len Gutkin asks, “Why, in the last 10 years, have elite colleges in particular become sites of such relentless ideological confrontation and objects of such severe political contestation?” In the essay, written after the Senate hearings on antisemitism on college campuses, Gutkin observes: …From one point of view,…
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Julia Schaletzky on Free Speech
BIFI’s Julia Schaletzky, writing in Tablet, diagnoses campus free speech problems and recommends solutions.
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Pinker’s Five-Point Plan for Harvard
Harvard Professor Steven Pinker published a five-point “plan to save Harvard from itself:” Free speech. Universities should adopt a clear and conspicuous policy on academic freedom. It might start with the First Amendment, which binds public universities and which has been refined over the decades with carefully justified exceptions. These include crimes that by their very…
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University of Toronto forms Academic Freedom Group
The Council on Academic Freedom University of Toronto (CAFUT) is a faculty-led group devoted to: Free inquiry The Council will advocate for academic freedom in teaching, research, and speech for members of the U of T community. Intellectual diversity The Council will promote thoughtful engagement by students and scholars who represent a broad range of…
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Alivisatos on Campus Free Speech
University of Chicago President (and former Berkeley Professor) Paul Alivisatos wrote a message to campus extolling free speech as both a gift and a collective responsibility: Ours is a culture built upon a fundamental commitment to place evidence, reason, logic, and rigor over authority, tradition, ideology, or dogma. The University can only achieve this vision…
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Provost on Political Activity
On October 25, 2023, Provost Benjamin Hermalin posted this message to CalMessages. Dear Community, I write to remind people of University policy as pertains to academic freedom and political advocacy in the classroom. While instructors enjoy considerable freedom and all individuals, when acting as private citizens, enjoy free speech rights, University policy does impose…