AFSA's Weekly Recap
The week's top news, views, vids, and other higher-ed reform highlights
AFSA HIGHLIGHTS
Colleges Should Choose Free Speech Over Coddling This Election Season. Byline Maggie Horzempa. As Election Day nears, universities like the University of North Carolina must protect free speech, maintain campus order, and keep academics running smoothly. Partisan coddling has no place, writes 2019 UNC-Chapel Hill grad and proud UNC AFSA board member.
Princeton’s Misguided Attempt to Erase Its Former President’s Legacy. Byline Start Taylor, Jr. And Edward Yingling. Continental Congress member and early Princeton University President John Witherspoon has now joined the ranks of American greats that some want ousted from the public square, as punishment for the fact that he, like many of his contemporaries, owned slaves. But a more nuanced and updated look back argues not just for keeping Witherspoon’s statue on display, but for recognizing his relatively enlightened views on slavery and his undeniable importance as a patriot, preacher, and successful university president.
Congress Weighs Interventions Over Antisemitism on Campus. Byline Alma Matters. Congress reportedly is preparing interventions if colleges and universities won't or can't address their antisemitism problem. And that's sure to elicit cries of "political meddling" and "outside interference" from inside the Ivory Tower. But what choice do lawmakers have if they see mounting evidence that taxpayer-funded or -subsidized institutions won’t or can’t correct glaring problems? Are lawmakers really to turn a blind eye to problems on campus, like the alarming rise of antisemitism, that involve potential violations of federal law?
Civility Suddenly Breaks Out At Israel-Palestine Student Debate Byline Alma Matters. College students coming together to debate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict without yelling, finger-wagging, sign-waving, or the customary venom and vitriol? How can that be? Well, not only can it be, but it actually happened. And a reporter from Inside Higher Ed was on hand to record the moment for posterity.
NEWS
House Report on Campus Antisemitism Details Need for Colleges to ‘Restore Order’ Byline Jessica Blake with Inside Higher ed. In the scathing 325-page report released Thursday, Republicans on House Education and Workforce Committee detailed the findings of their yearlong investigation into antisemitism at 11 colleges. In typical “kill-the-messenger style,” critics decried the report as a partisan hit job designed to rehash old allegations and tarnish higher education. Here’s a link to the report for those who prefer to go directly to the source.
Yale Embraces Institutional Neutrality It’s not exactly a stampede, but almost. Yale this week became the latest high-profile school to adopt institutional neutrality as a guiding light, although some chided the school for taking its sweet time about it. Here’s the Report on Institutional Voice for those who like going directly to the source.
80% of Americans Believe Speech Can Be a Form of Violence Byline Laurel Duggan. Maybe today’s college students aren’t such outliers when it comes to perceiving unwelcome, disagreeable, or harsh words as acts of violence. Four-fifths of Americans believe that speech can be a form of violence, according to a new poll commissioned by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. Only 20% completely disagreed with the statement “words can be violence”, and a combined 80% of respondents said the statement at least “slightly” represented their thoughts on the matter. That figure includes 22% who said the statement reflects their thoughts “completely.”
Over 100 Duke Faculty Petition The University To Adopt Institutional Neutrality. Byline Lucas Lin. Sixty percent of faculty at Duke support institutional neutrality, and so far 120 professors have signed a petition calling on the university to adopt it. So what do you say, Duke?
VIEWS
Let Dartmouth Serve as a Shining Example Of How to Handle Protests Byline Ed Tarnowski, writing for Real Clear Education. Colleges need examples of how to deal with pugilistic protesters. For that, they should look to the only Ivy League college that avoided being hit with a federal civil-rights investigation over its handling of allegations of antisemitism on campus in the wake of the October 7 terrorist attack. Dartmouth College President Sian Beilock effectively balanced the rights of students to peacefully protest while protecting the rights and safety of students who were not participating.
Who’s Afraid of Viewpoint Diversity in Florida? Byline Ray Rodrigues and Samuel J. Abrams. New survey data reveal that Florida’s faculty and staff are more fearful of cancel culture and self-censor at higher rates than the students they teach. While this problem requires attention, the very positive news is that a large majority of students, faculty, and staff fully appreciate the value of diverse ideas and want to ensure Florida’s higher education system remains a place where questions, debates, and dialogue thrive.
The Cornell Daily Sun Has an Ideological Diversity Problem Byline Noah Farb, writing in The Cornell Daily Sun. Does the ideological monoculture found on too many college campuses, including at Cornell, also hold sway at student newspapers? And what are the implications for students when that’s true?
RESOURCES
NAS Creates A One-Stop-Shop for DEI Studies and Reports The National Association of Scholars has, over the last few years, released studies on the growth and effects of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) at institutions and within states across America. They’ve now parked all those studies and reports, including from other organizations and researchers, in one place, as a resource for researchers of DEI.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Mark your calendars and make a note. The MIT Free Speech Alliance has scheduled its next Great Debate. An all-star group of experts will gather at 7 PM on Nov. 14th, in Cambridge, to debate whether decarbonization will be worth the cost. The event will be expertly moderated by Heterodox Academy President John Tomasi. It's going to be another full house so register now!
