Michael S. Roth— Over the last month, I’ve been talking with reporters, podcasters, and pundits about the quality of campus culture in the US today. I was surprised when one reporter asked, almost plaintively, “President Roth, are the kids alright?” He had been reading various reports of free speech crises,
Erwin Chemerinsky and Howard Gillman— We find much of what is said about free speech on college campuses unsatisfying. We are deeply troubled by the efforts to suppress and punish the expression of unpopular ideas. Those who call for punishment of speech that makes students feel uncomfortable fail to recognize
Floyd Abrams— American law could hardly be more inconsistent. When a family of religious zealots that formed what it characterized as the Westboro Baptist Church carried signs a thousand feet from a church where the death of an American soldier in Afghanistan was being mourned, saying that his death was deserved
Howard Gillman and Erwin Chemerinsky— Can public universities use concerns about violence to deny requests to have white nationalists speak on campus? Recently, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill joined Michigan State, Penn State, the University of Florida, and Texas A&M in denying a request by white nationalist Richard
Timothy Garton Ash— The fact that most states in the world have signed international treaties guaranteeing freedom of expression, and make such promises in their constitutions, does not answer the question: why should speech be free? As soon as we start trying to hold governments to their word, or debate
Stephen Eric Bronner— An old friend once told me that being a decent person means having a guilty conscience. And there was enough to feel guilty about as 2015 unfolded. Ethical uncertainty over how a liberal society should deal with the intolerant has become strikingly evident following the murders of four French
Philip N. Howard— Since the great tragedy of Charlie Hebdo, politicians and pundits around the world have succumbed to the notion that social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, are to blame for violent online extremism. They argue that social media is not only a conduit for terrorists it is
Olivia Gall— A few weeks ago, I visited a restaurant where an employee acted very rudely towards me. Fuming, I went home and wrote a scathing Yelp review about the establishment. Satisfied that justice had been served and that the entire online community could be made aware of the horrible
Though the nation’s college students may be contemplating a different kind of academic freedom at this time of year, Professors Matthew W. Finkin and Robert C. Post have published a new book that outlines the rights of professors in the American university. That work, For the Common Good, served as