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CIC Welcomes the Campus Free Expression Project
The Campus Free Expression Project (CFEP) has moved to CIC to provide this support to academic leaders at its independent colleges and universities. Launched in 2019 at the Bipartisan Policy Center, the CFEP’s central goal is to promote open discourse and provide resources on college campuses to create independent thinkers and engaged citizens.Read More -
Campus Free Expression: A New Roadmap for Trustees
Two core principles of higher education—academic freedom and free expression—are under great stress. Sometimes, the stress is direct: Guest speakers are silenced by the heckler’s veto. Government actors overreach in their legitimate oversight role to prescribe or proscribe subjects and scholarly approaches and by suggesting that the mere discussion of divisive concepts could result in […]Read More -
Campus Free Expression: A New Roadmap for Student Affairs
Academic freedom and free expression are central to the work of higher education. Yet these two core principles are under great stress. Sometimes, the stress is direct. Well-intended attempts to foster diversity and inclusion and to prevent discriminatory harassment can move administrators to over-regulate speech and association. Or government actors exercise their oversight role in […]Read More -
Campus Free Expression: A New Roadmap for Presidents
Two core principles of higher education—academic freedom and free expression—are under great stress. Sometimes, the stress is direct: Guest speakers are silenced by the heckler’s veto. Government actors overreach in their legitimate oversight role to prescribe or proscribe subjects and scholarly approaches, and by suggesting that the mere discussion of divisive concepts could result in […]Read More -
Campus Free Expression: A New Roadmap for Faculty
Two core principles of higher education—academic freedom and free expression—are under great stress. Sometimes, the stress is direct: Well-intended attempts to foster diversity and inclusion sometimes tie hiring, tenure, and promotion to controversial views about equality and how to advance it. Or government actors exercise their oversight role in such a way as to suggest […]Read More -
Campus Free Expression Project and Purdue University Hold Symposium on Challenges to Academic Freedom in the STEM Fields
November 1, 2023 A select group of provosts, deans, and faculty in STEM fields convened at Purdue University last month for an executive symposium to debate and discuss the state of academic freedom in higher education and how better to cultivate an open, scholarly environment for mathematics, sciences, and engineering. The symposium, Academic Freedom and […]Read More -
Politics, Institutional Speech, and the College Campus
Over the past several years colleges and universities have increasingly issued institutional statements to comment on political issues, Supreme Court rulings, and cultural controversies. This approach has created an expectation for leadership to weigh in on a range of issues, drawing criticism and pressure whether they do or don’t. How should presidents navigate these pitfalls […]Register Now -
Campus Free Expression Project and Concordia University Irvine Host Symposium on Freedom of Expression at Faith-Based Institutions
April 3, 2024 A select group of university presidents and other high-ranking officials from faith-based colleges and institutions gathered to explore how to foster a culture of open inquiry. The executive symposium, “Free Expression & the Faith-Based University,” was co-hosted by Concordia University Irvine, the Center for Civics Education at Concordia University Irvine, and the […]Read More -
Free Expression and the First Year College Orientation
November 16, 2022 By Jillian Lederman The purpose of the university is to foster the next generation of independent thinkers, capable of vibrant intellectual discourse across differences. Thrust into the whirlwind of college life, many matriculating students’ only real guidance comes during first-year orientation. The beginning of college is an important time for staff and […]Read More -
From Banned Books to Democratic Disagreement: Courses on Free Expression
As colleges seek to prepare the next generation to be independent thinkers and engaged citizens, courses on banned books or democratic disagreement stand to bolster students’ ability to engage in dialogue across difference and deepen student understanding of open inquiry and free expression. Join the Bipartisan Policy Center for a conversation with three professors who […]Register Now -
Campus Free Expression: A New Roadmap
Two core principles of higher education—academic freedom and free expression—are undergoing a period of great stress. There is overwhelming survey research and other evidence that the intellectual climate on many college and university campuses is being constrained. Faculty are deterred from exploring certain subjects and expressing candid opinions even off campus; students are self-censoring; outside […]Read More -
BPC Task Force Releases Strategic Roadmap for College Presidents to Bolster Campus Free Expression
November 30, 2021 Today, a Bipartisan Policy Center task force, featuring former governors, college presidents, and academic and civic leaders, released a new guide for colleges to address the factors that have stifled free expression on school campuses in recent years. The report, Campus Free Expression: A New Roadmap, identifies several of the social, civic, […]Read More -
The University Blacklist Course: A Model for Bringing Controversial Ideas to the Classroom
December 3, 2020 By Cecelia Vieira Higher education administrators, tasked with maintaining a school’s commitments to free expression, address everything from open inquiry protections to speech code reforms. Looking beyond policies, the task of fostering a campus culture which both celebrates viewpoint diversity and acknowledges our country’s history of censorship can be especially challenging, yet […]Read More -
An Alternative Standard for Dealing with Extremist Speakers
March 19, 2020 By Steven F. Hayward The ongoing campus controversies over free speech versus hate speech grind along deepening ruts that cannot escape two difficulties. The first is that a rigorous and intelligible definition of “hate speech” is elusive. The second is that current First Amendment jurisprudence defaults in favor of maximum protection for […]Read More -
Six Strategies for Conversing on Campus
September 9, 2019 By Jacqueline Pfeffer Merrill Freshmen are beginning to arrive on campuses across the country, often far from home for the first time, and meeting classmates from diverse cultural communities. The dorm lounges will be full of arguments about big political, cultural, and social issues over late-night pizza. Learning about the different cultural […]Read More
Contact Information
For further information and for all questions, contact Jacquie Pfeffer Merrill, director of the Campus Free Expression Project, at jpfeffermerrill@cic.edu or (202) 552-8962.