Open Letter to the President’s Advisory Committee on Free Expression and Institutional Speech

Northwestern Free Speech
Mar 08, 2024
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We the undersigned support Northwestern’s adoption of a strong free expression statement and a commitment to remaining neutral on political and social issues that do not affect institutional operations or core academic matters.

For Northwestern University to achieve its mission: “excellent teaching, innovative research and the personal and intellectual growth of its students in a diverse academic community,” it needs to protect the expressive rights of students and faculty members. 

In the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s 2024 College Free Speech Rankings, a national survey on student perceptions of campus free expression, Northwestern ranked in the bottom 10 of 248 colleges and universities. 

We believe this ranking can be improved, especially in light of the formation of the President’s Advisory Committee on Free Expression and Institutional Speech. We applaud the president’s decision to task this advisory committee with answering questions about the boundaries of free expression, the university’s role in political debates, and how these issues can be applied to Northwestern’s campus culture.

Northwestern must improve its campus culture through robust support for free expression so that faculty and students can teach and learn free of censorship. 

The first step to improve Northwestern’s speech climate is to adopt a commitment to free speech similar to the Chicago Statement, which guarantees “all members of the University community the broadest possible latitude to speak, write, listen, challenge, and learn” and declares that “it is not the proper role of the University to attempt to shield individuals from ideas and opinions they find unwelcome, disagreeable, or even deeply offensive.”

The First Amendment’s protections include the vast majority of speech and expression, but it does have its limits. These narrow limits include true threats and intimidation, incitement, harassment, and other unlawful conduct, which cannot be permitted at the university. Expressive activities also cannot disrupt the core functions of the university. Disrupting speakers or blocking attendance to campus events should not be tolerated. 

However, Northwestern’s current speech policies restrict speech beyond these limitations, constraining the expression that is the lifeblood of the university. 

Students and faculty need to see Northwestern’s leadership publicly pledge to protect and support free expression so that they will feel secure enough to speak their minds. This would also set an important expectation for incoming students: Come to campus ready to participate in a free exchange of ideas — an essential component of the university’s knowledge-discovery process.

Second, we recommend Northwestern adopt an institutional neutrality commitment similar to the Kalven Report to protect discourse on campus by ensuring that social and political issues remain up for debate, not hastily settled by university administrators. Far from turning a blind eye to the most important issues of the day, institutional neutrality statements allow the students and scholars of the university to serve their purpose by researching, debating, and studying the issues of our time. 

Join us in asking the advisory committee to adopt both a strong free speech statement and institutional neutrality for the university by the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year. Together we can protect the rights of students and faculty and ensure research and conversation flourish at Northwestern. 

Please sign your name to the letter and encourage the advisory committee to protect free expression.

Add Your Name

Signers:

  • Joel Sternstein - Alum

  • David Weidendorf - Alum

  • Mark Koppel - Alum

  • Dmitry Spivak - Alum

  • Robert D. Owen - Alum

  • Benjamin W. Slivka - Alum

  • Professor Diana C. Mutz - Alum

  • Craig Knoche - Alum

  • Mel Tarnopol - Alum

  • Sarah Butterfass - Alum

  • Dan Eisenberg - Alum

  • Steven Ruth - Alum

  • Michael Lindemann - Student

  • Kyle Peter - Alum

  • James A. McClure - Alum

  • Nora Collins - Student

  • Daniel J Murphy - Other

  • Dante J Pieramici - Alum

  • Matthew Morrison - Alum

  • Philip Keeve - Alum

  • James Bailey - Alum

  • Daniel Boyle - Alum

  • Tucker Andersen - Other

  • Stefanie Z - Other

  • Clark A. McCain - Alum

  • William Gorge - Alum

  • Trevor Hayes - Alum

  • Christopher Li - Alum

  • Jonathan Wolfe - Alum

  • Roman Macie - Alum

  • Michael Scharf - Alum

  • Robert Mullen - Alum

  • Greg Umbach - Alum

  • David Klafter - Alum

  • Molly Parsons Skelton - Alum

  • Leif Rasmussen - Alum

  • J. Michael Bailey - Faculty

  • Thomas Meade - Faculty

  • Mark Alznauer - Faculty

  • Iris Wang - Alum

  • Matthew Coile - Student

  • Carol Doyle - Other

  • Thomas Pellet - Alum

  • Cate Plys - Alum