Commentary: The University of North Carolina board's adoption of the Chicago Principles and the Kalven Report and its pledge to value differing opinions is noble and necessary.
in the face of efforts to suppress the free and open expression of ideas. The 1967 Kalven Report, also from the University of Chicago, committed the institution to neutrality on matters of public policy to encourage robust debate and avoid a chilling effect on the free exchange of ideas, which is essential to any university.
The UNC board’s continued attention to these issues is good news for those who envision universities as crucibles for the free exchange of ideas and the pursuit of truth. The board deserves plaudits for taking the lead in the face of the type of resistance that has led most university trustees and presidents to run for cover. But it is doubtful that a free-standing school of civic life and leadership will do much to affect the broader, deeply embedded university culture.
Although clearly not the trustees’ intent, a lesson students will learn from the creation of an independent program inspired by a commitment to free speech and the civil exchange of ideas is this: If you value unconstrained exchange of ideas, enroll in the school that allows for that. Otherwise, you can sign on with the established departments and accept whatever rules of inquiry and debate they declare.
The UNC board’s adoption of the Chicago Principles and the Kalven Report and its pledge to value differing opinions is noble and necessary. But as generations of academic trustees can attest, a university culture is not easily changed. Faculty members see themselves as independent actors, and administrators live in fear of faculty and student criticism. Unless trustees, presidents and deans impose serious consequences on those who suppress disfavored or controversial ideas, little will change.
So two cheers for the UNC trustees. They have demonstrated a commitment to the values that make a university a university. But the creation of what likely will become a free speech enclave, a safe space for the free exchange of ideas, will only encourage the rest of the university to keep on keeping on.would be better invested in a pervasive effort to build a university culture of free expression and the unrestrained exchange of ideas.
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