Roadmaps to Campus Free Expression

How do we maintain a campus environment that feels safe to those who feel vulnerable and is ready for diverse viewpoints that may arise? From the upcoming election to the Gaza war, today’s climate of increasing polarization poses new challenges for balancing academic freedom, free expression and diversity initiatives.

The Bipartisan Policy Center’s Academic Leaders Task Force on Campus Free Expression recently released a collection of updated reports to help guide efforts around campus free expression. In their new set of roadmaps offered through the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) they offer valuable insight on the changing landscape of higher education and challenges to free expression and academic freedom. The roadmaps provide insight into the different roles for faculty, staff, trustees and presidents to cultivate a campus environment where free expression is supported and contributes to the wellbeing of the institutional community.

The faculty roadmap authors note:

“Classroom discussion is chilled by the fear of a censorious minority, on or off campus, left wing or right wing, that can make one’s life miserable and impose high costs on speakers. Increasing ideological uniformity on campus further constrains free inquiry and expression by faculty and students alike. Because the pursuit of knowledge proceeds in many modes, we refer to free expression, not free speech. Speech may be the preeminent mode of inquiry on a college campus, whether it proceeds in the language of mathematics or the language of literary analysis. However, visual art, theatrical performance, nonverbal protest, and much more are also important modes of expression. More broadly, faculty speech is constrained in a polarized environment in which different factions are powerful enough to punish it. Evidence is ample that the intellectual climate on many college campuses impairs discussion of issues about which Americans passionately disagree. Faculty members confront these stresses amid falling trust in higher education across the board.

“The chilling of campus speech is having effects beyond campus borders. Rather than lessening the political polarization in our nation today, the inhibition of campus speech is degrading the civic mission of higher education, carried out especially by faculty members in their classrooms and co-curricular work. That mission is to maintain our pluralistic democracy by preparing students for civic participation as independent thinkers who can tolerate contrary viewpoints and work constructively with those with whom they have principled disagreements.”

We have provided the faculty and student affairs roadmaps here. Additional roadmaps can be found on the CIC website. As we move through this current moment, with increasing tension, conflict and polarization, we hope you find these roadmaps as valuable tools for promoting inclusive excellence and building the learning community we all want and deserve.