The on-line journal of DFTD reports on free speech and discourse and ideological balance issues at Davidson and serves as a clearing house for reports and articles nationwide illuminating the situation on other campuses, articulating the campus free speech cause, or proposing remedies to address the nationwide threat to free speech and open discourse on higher education campuses. In the interest of an informed and open dialogue, we encourage signed letters to the editor, and will consider, as well, original articles on free speech and ideological balance issues.
Davidson Freedom Roundup
National Association of Scholars
James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal
John Staddon is an emeritus professor of biology at Duke University and, thankfully, an academician who doesn’t fear being “canceled” for voicing incorrect opinions. His latest book, Science in an Age of Unreason, abounds in such opinions.
FRESHMAN DISORIENTATION: How Colleges and Universities lay the groundwork for student indoctrination
speechfirst.org
Executive summary
Freshman orientation programs at American universities receive a remarkable lack of critical attention. Our 2022 Freshman Disorientation report offers an unprecedented window into the themes and material covered in the new student orientations of America’s largest public universities.
James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal
In 1987, philosopher Allan Bloom published The Closing of the American Mind, a book critiquing higher education in America. As a self-described teacher “dedicated to liberal education,” Bloom offered a thoughtful account of illiberal cultural and ideological trends:
University of Chicago Provost
The Kalven Committee was appointed in February 1967 by University of Chicago President George W. Beadle. This faculty committee was charged with preparing "a statement on the University's role in political and social action." The resulting Kalven Report now stands as one of the most important policy documents at the University of Chicago. It affirms the University's commitment to the academic freedom of faculty and students in the face of suppression from internal and/or external entities while also insisting on institutional neutrality on political and social issues.
James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal
University presidents make a difference. The best of them can steer a university to new heights of greatness, while the worst of them can bring costly mediocrity or even extinction.
A few weeks ago, Mitch Daniels of Purdue, arguably the primus inter pares of American university presidents, announced that he was stepping down at the end of 2022 after a decade of extraordinary service.
James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal
Last week, the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees passed two important resolutions on campus viewpoint neutrality. With the addition of these protections, UNC’s free-speech policies are among the best in the nation.
C-SPAN
In this online webinar attorneys and advocates discussed free speech on college campuses and how cancel culture and political divides have impacted it. They also spoke about legal options available to students who believe their First Amendment rights to free speech have been violated. The Heritage Foundation hosted the discussion.
National Review
I arrived at Princeton University in September 2019. I had looked at Princeton online and thought, “one day . . .” Suddenly, I was experiencing day one.
The Wall Street Journal
I attended a conference a few years ago for undergraduate “prelaw advisers”—academics, usually professors or deans, who guide undergraduates through the law-school admissions process. An admissions official from a prestigious law school used a file from a past applicant (with identifying information removed) to illustrate the review process. She began by noting the student’s high grade point average from “a good school.” That bothered me, because I knew she’d never call my regional state institution a “good school.”