A recent cancellation poses a challenge to Princeton’s newfound commitment to free speech.
When presidents from our top-ranked universities averred before a Congressional committee that they could not crack down on anti-Israel demonstrations last fall, their explanations fell flat. They claimed they were dedicated to the principles of free speech, academic freedom, and the pursuit of knowledge no matter how uncomfortable. Even calls for genocide could be protected depending on the context. That’s what robust free speech norms require. Our universities are meant to embrace robust free speech in pursuit of their fundamental mission to build and promulgate knowledge.
Two of the three presidents who made those claims have since resigned. That was likely due at least in part to the rank and obvious hypocrisy in their statements. American universities, including those represented at the hearing, had been the centers of numerous free-speech scandals. Students had been dragged to kangaroo courts for harassment on the thinnest reeds. Professors were suspended or fired for taking unpopular positions. Heckler’s vetoes were ubiquitous, as schools would refuse to punish students, faculty, and outside agitators who disrupted events even in violation of stated free-speech policies.
Now that Jews at Columbia were being told to “go back to Poland” and Hezbollah flags flew at Princeton, school presidents rushed to say that this time they really meant it. From now on, free speech would reign in place of opaque speech codes and disruptive protests.
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Tal Fortgang is an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute. He was a 2023 Sapir Fellow.
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