Free Speech on College Campuses

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Midterm Report on Future U.

In our last episode of 2023, Jeff and I discussed some of the big headlines in higher ed: the reaction on campuses to the Israel-Hamas War, the big changes afoot at 2U, and more college closures.

Jeff asked me about the turmoil on college campuses since the Hamas attack on Israel.

Here’s some of what I said:

It has hit home. And I spoke, of course briefly, about this in the back half of our show with David Leonhardt. But as a faculty member… to see the reaction of many of the students and faculty, it's been jarring at best and frankly deeply upsetting at times.

And I think what's worse is, if I'm being totally honest, I'm not sure that I'm all that surprised by it, just having been on the campus the last few years. But there is a deep hurt. There's a feeling of hypocrisy on the campus, given events of the last few years. And I think it raises a set of big questions that not just me, but a lot of people are now asking around what does free speech and academic freedom on a college campus really look like?

What is in bounds to talk about and what is out of bounds? When does free speech cross over to being the kind that is inciting violence, that is breaking campus rules, that is limiting others' ability to express themselves, and is making an environment not just toxic and unwelcoming but outright hostile? And I think that's frankly where I'll try to focus for the most part, for the purposes of our podcast on the future of higher ed, less on litigating some of the questions around the treatment of Israel and Palestine and Jews and Muslims, and more on what does it mean for the future of higher ed.

Jeff then spoke about the generational divide in opinions about the conflict, which I reacted to. But then I shared my bigger takeaway. Here’s an excerpt:

I think there's a need for a real reset on college campuses at the leadership level. I think universities should really return to the ways of the Kalven Report, a document that a faculty committee from the University of Chicago prepared in 1967, as you know—which [was] a time of even much deeper unrest on American college campuses about issues, by the way, that actually directly impacted far more young Americans at the time—on the university's role in political and social action.

And one of the big conclusions from that report was that it would be inappropriate for administrators to issue statements on these sorts of issues. Instead, their job should really be about creating an environment in which students can debate and discuss these difficult issues without a thumb on the scale from administrators suggesting that there's a right way to see the issue. And I think universities have really gotten away from that the past years…

Now, to be clear, Jeff, the time to get back to it I think is not in the middle of a controversy and decide to all of a sudden become silent again. It's probably a few months from now, through some introspection, faculty involvement. And then say, ‘Look, this is how we're going to now treat these events. And this is when we will and we won't issue statements and why. When it impacts the safety of our students, for example, we will weigh in. When it doesn't, that’s not the role of university leadership,’ for example.

We wrapped this segment up by talking a bit more about the nature of the current dialogue on college campuses. Here’s more of what I said:

I've just been so struck by how limited the dialogue has been on campus, how narrow the viewpoints, how ahistorical some of the teachings have been, how simple-minded the narrative of oppressors versus oppressed is, and the lack of an ability for the different viewpoints to converse with each other.

And let's state it up front. Palestinian civilians have real, honest grievances. And yet at the same time, I don't know in what universe a population that had 6 million people killed less than a century ago, literally exterminated, and has been under waves of assault since, is somehow just labeled as an oppressor. Both of those statements that I'm making can be true, and we can and should also be putting these big labels, I think, in deeper context. Go beyond the Twitter statements and the casually throwing around words like apartheid that can apply to many countries.

And I see a real failing of our schools in that dialogue. And what I think I want to go to more here is something that we've talked on the show in the past year, which is I think this is an opportunity for them to create real resilience in students. The ability to have safe spaces, not to be free from difficult ideas, but to be able to debate and grapple with complexity. And for students to have a lot more humility in what they do and don't know. Those are life skills that I think would serve them and society better. And if higher ed really has a public purpose, Jeff, I'd love to see them step up to the plate on this and be part of the solution that brings us together, not pulls us apart into factions based on identities and what divides us.

I’d welcome your take as well after you’ve listened to the full episode, including to our thoughts on the future of online higher education and the turmoil at 2U, the leading online program manager.

Thanks for reading, writing, and listening.