Civil Discourse and Academic Freedom

The War Against Academic Freedom

The Enlightenment ideal of the university is a community of scholars seeking the truth. The methodology of this ideal is a multiplicity of voices and views engaged in discussion and debate, in seeking and adducing evidence, and in drawing and…

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A video for incoming freshman at Princeton University is designed to give them a dose of indoctrination upon arrival at campus. Photo by John Greim/LightRocket

Profs: Princeton diversity office’s ‘nihilistic’ attack on university’s history and anti-woke dissidents

The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion office of Princeton University has a message for incoming students: It wants them to participate in “tearing down” the very institution they have worked so hard to attend. And to drive this message home, the office is…

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Why Professors Are Canceled

The cancellation of professors is overdetermined, that is, caused by multiple influences all contributing to the end result. Anne Applebaum reviews some prominent cancellations in her lengthy account in The Atlantic, entitled “The New Puritans.” Here are some of the contributing…

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Fighting for Free Speech on America’s Campuses

The free-speech watchdog FIRE is a familiar irritant to college administrators, but until this past year, the rest of the country wasn’t paying much attention. An “epic” year is what Greg Lukianoff, president and chief executive of the Foundation for…

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Stanford falls for BDS

After the resolution on divestment from Israel failed in the ASSU Senate last week following a heated debate, I wrote to The Stanford Daily with criticism of the resolution and the polarization it caused. I asked the senators to replace…

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Harvard’s Moment of Veritas

Last week, Lawrence H. Summers, the Charles W. Eliot University Professor and president emeritus of Harvard University, and former Secretary of the treasury, delivered a lecture on “Academic Freedom and Anti-Semitism” at Columbia University. He recalled that in 2002, when…

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Harvard, Israel, and Academic Freedom

This past week I delivered a lecture at Columbia University on academic freedom and anti-Semitism.  I argued that it is the essence of academic freedom that all members of our community can hold whatever views they wish and express them…

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