Friends:

I've been tracking this—and just catching up to the latest here in Texas on free speech. Adopting the Chicago Statement is a great move in the right direction as it supports free speech by university faculty. According to scholars Berube and Ruth (2022), extremist campaigns against free speech work to create the impression that the university is little different from the marketplace of journalism when it is. 

Berube and Ruth argue that the academic freedom that we professors not solely enjoy, but earn through our formal training as scholars and researchers, is "vetted speech" when we speak from our own expertise. 

According to these scholars, and as mentioned in my earlier post, "both-sidism" is an untenable proposition. It is the misguided notion that impartiality, where one speaks even-handedly to "both sides" of an issue, is a balanced view. However, it is not sustainable when considering that not all opinions are equal, on the one hand, and when there can be many sides to an issue, on the other.

This statement lends important support to existing state policy, namely, Senate Bill 18 passed in the 86th (2019) Texas Legislative Session by Republicans in response to attempts in recent years, to silence conservative voices.

I had learned previously of the Chicago Statement and thought, "It would be so great if UT could adopt this." And it just happened for the entire UT System, literally a few days ago! 

It protects free speech for academics across the political spectrum that at least for now, provides a great deal of support and backing for the work that we all do—and the voice that we give to that work. 

Of course, the UT System knows that failing to protect free speech is anathema to democracy, and ending it would irreparably cripple higher education in Texas. My wishes don't often become true so quickly, so life is good right now.

I pray that this very positive development means one less fight in the next session of the legislature that begins soon in January. We can only hope.

-Angela Valenzuela

References

Bérubé, M., & Ruth, J. (2022). It's Not Free Speech: Race, Democracy, and the Future of Academic Freedom.  Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

UT System approves commitment to free speech, even if most students find that speech “offensive” or “immoral”

The Board of Regents adopted the Chicago Statement, a free speech policy created by the University of Chicago in 2014. More than 90 institutions have adopted the statement.

BY TRENT BROWN NOV. 17, 20224 PM CENTRAL

Protesters gather in front of the UT Tower to protest President Donald Trump's inauguration in 2017. The UT System Board of Regents approved a commitment to free speech Thursday. Credit:Shelby Knowles for The Texas Tribune

The University of Texas System Board of Regents adopted a formal policy Thursday expressing its commitment to free speech on its campuses.

The board unanimously approved adopting the Chicago Statement, a declaration of commitment to free speech that was penned for the University of Chicago in 2014.

According to the statement, the board “guarantees all members of the UT System the broadest possible latitude to speak, write, listen, challenge, and learn.” It reads, “debate or deliberation may not be suppressed because the ideas put forth are thought by some or even by most individual members of the UT System community to be offensive, unwise, immoral, or wrong-headed.”

The UT System reserves the ability to restrict speech that breaks the law or constitutes a threat, among other examples.

“Why the Chicago Statement? As my friend, [Purdue University President] Mitch Daniels said, when Purdue was one of the early institutions to adopt it, we didn’t see how we could improve upon the language, and I think we share that sentiment,” UT System Chancellor James Milliken said to the Board of Regents at its regular meeting.

The statement “does reinforce the board’s already existing commitment to free speech on our campuses,” Milliken added, “but I think it’s an important statement from the governing board for the university system.”

The University of Texas Senate of College Councils, an intercollegiate student government at University of Texas at Austin, endorsed the board’s decision.

“The Senate of College Councils supports free speech for individuals to advocate for their needs, especially at a time when political actors are attacking the academic freedom to teach and to learn,” it said in a statement from Communications Director Vaishnavi Kothakonda. “In the future, we hope to work with the University to ensure that free speech applies to all students and faculty.”

“In many universities and systems, the existing [free speech] policies are a sort of patchwork of policy decisions,” said Jeremy Young, the senior manager of free expression and education at PEN America, a nonprofit that seeks to protect free expression in the U.S. and worldwide.

“The value of adopting the Chicago Statement is in making a clear, declarative statement that sets a set of principles” for how free speech will work at the UT System, Young added. “This pulls free expression out to the front and makes it a preeminent goal and focus of the institution, as it should be.”

Ninety-one other academic institutions across the country, including University of Texas at San Antonio, have adopted the Chicago Statement, according to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a nonprofit that aims to protect free speech rights on college campuses.

In 2019, Texas passed a law requiring universities to allow anyone to speak freely while on campus and to create disciplinary sanctions for students who interfere with others’ free speech.

Disclosure: University of Texas at Austin, University of Texas at San Antonio and University of Texas System have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.