The AFSA Weekly Review
The week's top news, views, vids, and other higher-ed reform highlights
AFSA HIGHLIGHTS
UT-Austin's Next Leader Should Be A Proven Champion For Free Speech The Alma Matters Substack Page. AFSA's Texas affiliate spells out its top job requirements for Longhorn Nation's next president. Read the Austin American Statesman op-ed here.
An Open Letter to Elizabeth Davis The Furman Free Speech Alliance. It is time for Furman to cut its DEI hiring practices, argues the Furman Free Speech Alliance.
Cornell's Alumni Trustee Election -- Unlawfully Rigged by the Trustees? The Ras-Stack page. Eric Rasmusen, who shares his insights on the Ras-Stack page, tackles the controversy over Cornell’s Alumni Trustee elections.
ASU Alumni Unite To Support Free Expression Arizona State University Alumni for Free Speech. Arizona State University Alumni for Free Speech was founded on the rooftop of the Canopy Hotel right off University Drive late last year with this in mind. Alumni ranging from the class of ‘85 to the class of ‘25 came together because we love ASU — and we recognize that to love means to will the good of the other; not to sit idly by until the fundraising department reaches out to see if we’ll toss them a few bucks.
"Censorship In The Sciences" Conference Now Available on Video The Alma Matters Substack Page. A recent three-day conference at USC explored how higher-ed’s “woke mind virus” (Elon Musk’s phrase) also is infecting, co-opting, corrupting, and politicizing university science departments.
NEWS
Trump Department of Education opens probes into anti-Semitism at Columbia, four other universities The Washington Free Beacon. The Department of Education on Monday opened investigations into "widespread antisemitic harassment" at Columbia University and four other schools in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre of Israeli civilians. Read DOE’s press release here. Northwestern also lands on the list.
Texas lawmakers may ban certain lessons at state colleges under expanded DEI crackdown The Texas Tribune. This year, the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature is expected to pick up where it left off two years ago to address a perceived liberal bias at the state’s public, four-year universities.
UNC ditches DEI course mandates to secure federal funds WFMY News. All mandated DEI courses have been suspended at the system's 16 schools.
‘In the United States, there is no king’: AAUP sues Trump over DEI orders Higher Ed Dive. Two higher education organizations Monday filed suit against President Donald Trump and his administration over his executive orders aiming to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the public and private sectors. The American Association of University Professors and the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education argue that Trump’s orders are overly vague, an overstep of his legal authority and chill speech that the president opposes. Click here to learn more about this lawsuit.
ASU professors fail to cancel Christian speaker’s ‘dangerous’ guest talk titled ‘Family Under Attack’ The College Fix. Arizona State University hosted an event this week featuring attorney Mary Hasson, whose Christian beliefs and opposition to gender ideology have sparked outrage from students and faculty. Despite over 100 individuals signing a letter to cancel the event, Hasson still gave her lecture.
Democrats outnumber Republican professors 4 to 1 in math, engineering departments The College Fix. Democratic professors outnumber their Republican counterparts by a ratio of about 4 to 1 in math and engineering departments, according to a College Fix analysis. The Fix reviewed the political affiliations of professors in these departments, specifically looking at the same ten universities analyzed in the past year. The Fix previously looked up the affiliations of professors in humanities departments.
Faculty report finds that Harvard students self-censor, show little interest in classwork The Harvard Crimson. A Faculty of Arts and Sciences committee released a report last week concluding that many Harvard College students self-censor when discussing controversial topics and frequently prioritize extracurricular commitments over their academics. The committee recommended strengthening course attendance requirements, discouraging phone use in class, standardizing grading, and amending student and faculty handbooks to include a classroom confidentiality policy (sometimes known as the Chatham House Rule).
Ohio State U. professor can sue for firing after using n-word in class, judge rules The College Fix. A federal judge refused to dismiss a free speech lawsuit Friday alleging Ohio State University wrongly fired a professor for using the n-word in a class focused on controversial discourse. The former professor, Mark Sullivan, used “the n-word for an educational purpose” and “that speech is protected” under the First Amendment, U.S. District Judge Michael Watson wrote, according to an excerpt from the ruling published at Reason.
DEI courses consume 40 million hours of undergrad time: report The College Fix. “Diversity, equity, and inclusion” course requirements in at least 30 states cost students and taxpayers at least $1.8 billion per four-year period. Meanwhile, “the current undergraduate population at public universities will spend at least 40 million hours” fulfilling these mandates in order to graduate, a conservative think tank report found. The author of the Goldwater Institute report told The College Fix that DEI initiatives are costly to taxpayers not only due to the funds diverted to them but also because consultants and faculty profit from these programs.
VIEWS
How Trump can make universities great again City Journal. The message he should send to college presidents? Reform or lose funding.
Deporting radicalism: Trump’s crackdown on anti-Israel campus protests Minding the Campus. In a Jan. 29 executive order, President Donald Trump appears to target — among other things — foreign students involved in anti-Semitic activism, signaling a significant escalation in the administration’s efforts to address the surge in anti-Israel protests that have swept U.S. campuses since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. Under the order, the government is working with university administrators to monitor activities “by alien students and staff” and, when necessary, take action “to remove such aliens.”
The end of the DEI era? The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal. The University of Michigan is trimming fake diversity. Expect other schools to follow.
The Chicago Principles at ten years: President Alivisatos’ keynote address The University of Chicago. President Paul Alivisatos delivers the keynote address at a Jan. 31 event marking the 10th anniversary of the Chicago Principles. Read more about the anniversary celebration here and here.
Is it time for the University of Chicago to abandon cherished neutrality and join the fight against Trump? The Chicago Tribune. The University of Chicago is marking the 10th anniversary of the 2015 restatement by a faculty committee of the school’s commitment to free speech values known as the “Chicago Principles.” This celebration is a somber occasion, for intellectual freedom is under siege on multiple fronts, presenting higher education with challenges that are likely to test foundational values as never before.
A decade of debate: Celebrating 10 years of the Chicago principles The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. In 2014, American colleges faced an existential crisis — campuses erupted over controversial speakers as the heckler’s veto increasingly replaced debate. In response, the University of Chicago drafted a landmark statement reaffirming the school’s commitment to free speech. Since then, more than 110 colleges and universities have adopted the “Report of the Committee on Freedom of Expression,” commonly known as the Chicago Statement or the Chicago principles, transforming the landscape of higher education in the country.
Why these professors are hypocrites on academic freedom Campus Reform. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is in decline but some academics are doubling down on their commitment to its totalitarian orthodoxy.
A left, not libertarian, defense of free speech Inside Higher Ed. Joseph J. Fischel and Kyler Chittick argue that the academic left has ceded too much of the moral high ground when it comes to free speech.
The downfall of Ibram X. Kendi City Journal. The predictable rise and fall of America’s leading race guru.
PODCASTS
Will free expression thrive under Trump 2.0? The Wall Street Journal. On this episode of “Free Expression,” University of Chicago president Paul Alivisatos tells Gerry Baker about the shift he is seeing towards the Chicago principles of free speech and the incredible advances being developed in the field of artificial intelligence.
Cancel culture, legal education, and the Supreme Court So to Speak. A podcast conversation with Ilya Shapiro, a senior fellow and director of constitutional studies at The Manhattan Institute.
REPORTS AND RESOURCES
Can Arizona’s Universities Achieve a Gold Standard for Freedom of Expression? The American Council of Trustees and Alumni Can Arizona’s three major public universities achieve ACTA's Gold Standard for Freedom of Expression? Not unless they get to work. The group’s Arizona Campus Experience Survey found that:
59% of students at all three Arizona public universities feel the need to self-censor at least occasionally because of how others might respond;
Only 17% of students at all three Arizona public universities report receiving training from faculty or staff on free expression policies;
60% of students at all three schools believe professors who say something students find offensive should be reported to the university;
28% of students at all three schools say using violence to stop speech is acceptable, at least on rare occasions; and
60% of students at all three schools believe their universities should take action to promote political diversity among faculty.
Here's the press release.
Here's the survey report.
Here's the report card.
EVENTS
Musa al-Gharbi: We Have Never Been Woke On Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025, author and scholar Musa al-Gharbi comes to MIT for a discussion of his new book, We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite. Musa al-Gharbi is a sociologist and assistant professor in the School of Communication and Journalism at Stony Brook University. His research primarily focuses on the political economy of knowledge production and the social life of scholarly and journalistic outputs. He is a columnist for The Guardian, and his writing has also appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, and more. This event is co-presented by the MIT Free Speech Alliance and the Heterodox Academy Campus Community at MIT.
Is the U.S.-Israel alliance a strategic asset for American foreign policy? Princetonians for Free Speech. The Princeton Open Campus Coalition, with support from Steamboat Institute and Princetonians for Free Speech, is proud to present a compelling debate on the following resolution: Be it resolved, the U.S.-Israel alliance is a strategic asset for American foreign policy. Arguing the affirmative is Josh Hammer, Senior editor-at-large of Newsweek and host of The Josh Hammer Show. Arguing the negative is Dave Smith, Stand-Up Comedian and host of Part of the Problem Podcast. The event takes place Tuesday, Feb 11, and 6:30 PM ET in McCosh 10.
Immigration in the Trump Era To Be Debated At UNC On Feb. 20 Join UNC AFSA, Heterodox Heels, and the Student Free Speech Alliance for a dynamic panel on immigration, deportation, and shifting policy under the Trump administration. Simon Hankinson of The Heritage Foundation and David Bier of the Cato Institute will explore whether migration benefits the United States, the challenges posed by the current state of the border, and the rapidly changing state of immigration policy and enforcement. Audience Q&A will follow the panel discussion. Register here.
Turley To Headline UNC Alumni Free Speech Alliance April 3 Annual Meeting
Join the UNC Alumni Free Speech Alliance to celebrate a successful year defending free speech at our annual meeting at the Carolina Club on April 3rd, 2025. Arrive at 6:00 PM for cocktails and stay for dinner at 7:00, when keynote speaker Jonathan Turley will discuss the indispensable right to free speech in America and the state of higher education.
Register for this event here.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor, columnist, television analyst, and litigator. Since 1998, he has held the Shapiro Chair for Public Interest Law at George Washington University Law School. He has served as counsel in some of the most notable cases in the last two decades, including representing members of Congress, judges, whistleblowers, five former Attorney Generals, celebrities, accused spies and terrorists, journalists, protesters, and the workers at the secret facility Area 51. Turley has testified before Congress over one hundred times, including during the impeachments of Presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump. He was also lead counsel in the last judicial impeachment in US history. He has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and USA TODAY. Called the “dean of legal analysts” by The Washington Post, Turley has worked as a legal analyst for CBS, NBC, BBC, and Fox.
