University Diaries » “[T]he current wave of censorship that threatens the continuing excellence of U.S. higher education can be repudiated, as it should be, as a transitory moment of weakness that disrespects what our institutions of higher learning must represent.”

To that end, UD‘s University of Chicago recently assembled a faculty committee which came up with “a powerful new statement on the importance of freedom of expression on campus.” Here’s a place where you can, if you like, add your endorsement to it.

The U of C statement revisits and clarifies the nature of free thought.

Under the category democracy, this blog has covered growing numbers of hideous, farcical, tiresome, and alarming instances of speech repression on campus.

More on a depressing trend here.

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Think back, in this connection, on Carl Schorske, who has died at the age of 100.

At UC Berkeley, Schorske was regarded by colleagues as a liberal thinker and a reputed supporter of the aims of the Free Speech Movement, identifying with students’ demands for free speech and respect.

“You have to convert the poison of social discord into the sap of intellectual vitality,” Schorske said in an interview in 2000, reflecting on his time at UC Berkeley.

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UD thanks Dirk.

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charlie Says:
September 28th, 2015 at 5:36PM

Wasn’t a liberal arts education premised on the capacity to debate and challenge? If not, then the reason given for the university’s existence is a lie. If so, don’t waste money on tuition. Instead, patronize a public library, and become your own teacher. No properly functioning adult would allow anyone to tell them what to read, what to think, what to say….

Mondo Says:
September 28th, 2015 at 7:23PM

Thanks for this. I immediately took the model version that FIRE adapted from UC’s version, did a quick and dirty edit, and sent it to our faculty council (and from there, I hope, to the full faculty.) What good is tenure if I can’t stir up trouble?

In Which the Prof Gets FIREd Up | Professor Mondo Says:
September 28th, 2015 at 7:59PM

[…] there for me in 1983. All the same, I’ve always had a soft spot for the school, and I was tickled today when Margaret “University Diaries” Soltan mentioned that the U of C recently issued a […]

dmf Says:
September 29th, 2015 at 9:11AM

my pleasure UD, was inspired by a recent talk by @AliceDreger
who lost her tenured job over being censored by her admin while she was working on a book on recent trends in censoring research on campuses…

University Diaries » Harvard Delights and Disgusts Says:
April 14th, 2023 at 8:11AM

[…] of free inquiry need to take an explicit stand against these enemies of freedom. UD’s beloved University of Chicago is a pioneer here; Harvard and other schools follow UC in strong unmitigated statements, rules, and […]

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