American universities consider freedom of speech to be whatever they say it is!

Echo opinion published in the Daily Press, a Virginia Gazette opinion.   Although Maine Writer does not fully support the opinion expressed in this article, I appreciate the point of view about how academia has not condemned "hate speech" in the subjects entitled to "free speech".  Anti-Semitism is "hate speech".  

An academic housekeeping is in order!

Frankly, I do not understand how America's educational institutions can claim to support freedom of speech when they allow antisemitism to infect their campuses. Freedom of speech does not include freedom to express "hate speech".  Full stop❗

Chicago principles "... the university's responsibility is twofold, to promote a lively and fearless freedom of debate and deliberation, but also to protect that freedom when others attempt to restrict it..."

The responses of several university presidents during recent congressional testimony regarding campus antisemitism were disappointing, but they were also reflective of a much larger problem. That problem is not only the enforcement of prevailing social, political and economic orthodoxies, but worse, that such orthodoxies also exist in our educational institutions at all.

At too many institutions and organizations, visual diversity is on the agenda, but diversity of opinion gets lip service at best.

DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) has been a valuable aspiration in academia for quite some time and one I supported, but in many places it has morphed into an enforced catechism encompassing the trappings of a religion. Alignment with DEI has become a litmus test for hiring, promotion and tenure decisions. Everyone is expected to be on the same page, and heretics are unwelcome. Merit and equality of opportunity have been replaced by compensatory discrimination and a contrived attempt to create equal outcomes.

It is tempting to blame “wokeness” for all of this, but wokeness itself is not the problem.

Rather, the deeper problem is coercive wokeness, and the result is cultural inbreeding and a homogeneity of opinion.

FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, has been fighting for years to protect not only our First Amendment rights, but also our very culture of free expression, which is just as important. FIRE defends in court the free expression rights of people on both the political right and left. They are particularly focused on American colleges and universities, where freedom of expression, mostly as a result of smothering campus orthodoxies, is becoming increasingly threatened.

For 2024, FIRE has produced a list of 248 colleges and ranked them in the order in which free and open inquiry exists and is protected. Can readers guess who ranks last at Nos. 247 and 248? It’s the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard, in that order, both of whose presidents appeared before Congress and were lambasted for equivocating about calls for the genocide of Jews, saying it all depended on the “context” or only if it is translated into action. Yale is No. 234. One is left to wonder if, for example, a group of white supremacists on campus were to call for genocide against Black people whether the same university presidents would still contend that it all depends on context or actions.

Of more local interest, Virginia Tech ranks No. 160, William & Mary ranks a respectable No. 59 and the University of Virginia ranks a stunning No. 6. The top two in the nation are Michigan Technological University at No. 1 and Auburn University at No. 2. The University of Chicago (No. 13) deserves special mention because its commitment to freedom of expression has been made very public and appears to be taken very seriously. The “Chicago Principles” have been adopted by multiple colleges and universities across the county and are described as “the university’s overarching commitment to free, robust and uninhibited debate.” Moreover, they appear to practice what they preach.

My own undergraduate alma mater is Penn State, and I was honored to teach there between 1994 and 2005. I love my school, but it now ranks No. 189. I can believe it because, having graduated from its College of Education in 1966, I have been on the mailing list from that college for a very long time, and it has changed. 

In fact, during recent years, there were multiple communications that referenced its mission about turning America’s newest teachers into social justice warriors, and many of the stories about individual students, faculty or administrators include references to their racial or other identities.

We must never forget that requiring people to say things is just as much a violation of their right to free expression as is forbidding them to say things. Of course, our right to freedom of expression is not absolute in nature, meaning utterly without restriction. 

There will continue to be penalties for such things as libel, slander, fraud, incitement to riot, etc. 

In the end, the presence of prevailing orthodoxies, where students, faculty, administrators and guest speakers are fearful of retribution for wandering off of the politically correct page, is antithetical to the freedom of inquiry that higher education is supposed to be about.

If I were to be offered a position as a DEI officer at a college or a business, I would accept it only on the condition that my mission would be to promote equality of opportunity, advance the Chicago Principles and endeavor to work myself out of a job.

Joseph Filko has taught economics and American government and lives in Williamsburg. He can be reached at jfilko1944@gmail.com.