National Free Speech News & Commentary

Michael S. Roth
Slate Magazine

Excerpt: It is urgent that the leaders of colleges and universities stand up in defense of their interests and the values of higher education. American schools have long trumpeted their contribution to promoting an educated citizenry. Now, as one of the most consequential elections in American history approaches, we must do everything we can to help students work on campaigns and facilitate voting. And we must call out the threats to higher education.

This may seem straightforward, but in the wake of Oct. 7 and controversies over statements (or the lack of statements) concerning the atrocities, many academic leaders have embraced a doctrine of “institutional neutrality.” This is exactly the wrong time for such a retreat.

PEN America Press Release

Excerpt: PEN America today sharply criticized some Republican members of Congress for their recent actions scrutinizing academic decision-making at the Naval Academy, including insinuating that an invitation to scholar Ruth Ben-Ghiat to deliver a lecture could violate federal law, which led to the event’s cancellation.

Ryann Quinn
Inside Higher Ed

Excerpt: Liviu Matei knows firsthand what it looks like when an authoritarian leader seeks to reshape higher education. Matei was provost at Central European University when the parliament led by Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s prime minister, passed a law in 2017 essentially forcing his institution out of the country. The law supposedly targeted foreign branch campuses, but many saw it as an attack on a university founded by liberal Hungarian American financier George Soros.

The situation became a worldwide “cause célèbre of academic freedom,” Matei said during a panel Wednesday. But he added that “you might be surprised to hear that there was almost no discussion about academic freedom in Europe between the fall of the Berlin Wall” and the new millennium.

Anemona Hartocollis
New York Times

Excerpt: Maura Finkelstein, an anthropology professor at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania, was an avid poster on social media. She called a fund-raiser for the Israeli war effort “students raising money for genocide,” and she frequently ended her posts with the words “Free Palestine.”

Sara Berinhout
FIRE

Excerpt: When the University of Washington encouraged faculty to include a statement in each course syllabus acknowledging that the school sits on land once held by the Coast Salish tribes, computer science professor Stuart Reges decided to express his disagreement.

But when a handful of students and staff complained, the university removed his syllabus from the course website, encouraged students to file complaints against him, siphoned away his students to a newly created second offering of his class to be taught by another professor, and launched a year-long investigation into Reges, an award-winning professor, over allegations that his parody statement was offensive and violated university anti-harassment policy. With FIRE’s help, Reges stood up for his academic freedom.

Robert Shibley
FIRE

Excerpt: This election season, Pennsylvania State University appears to be unleashing its own October Surprise — against its students. In a brazen display of ignorance of (or disdain for) long-settled law, Penn State this semester has trampled over the rights of student journalists and other students registering their classmates to vote. There are times in FIRE’s case work where we can understand the flawed logic that leads an administrator to break the law, but there is no excusing or justifying what has happened on the Penn State campus over the past few weeks.