Description
In recent years, campus expression challenges have garnered the attention of media pundits, state legislators, and advocacy groups and have too often been reduced to click-bait headlines and hyperbolic tweets that invite and escalate conflict on campus. Yet the issue of free expression on campus is more complex than that. A breadth of ideas and views, including contentious ones, are part of life on campus, and administrators and faculty must develop strategies for building the community’s capacity to effectively navigate speech controversies. All campus stakeholders would benefit from renewed focus on and continuing education and conversation about the value of robust expression in higher education alongside other institutional values, notably inclusion; legal protections for expression; and ways to facilitate and engage in difficult conversations. We hope these tips for doing so will be helpful.
MICHELLE DEUTCHMAN AND ELISABETH YAP (SPRING 2022). It’s Not a Zero-Sum Game: Ways to promote both freedom of expression and inclusion. Liberal Education. AAC&U.