Elite university presidents invoked the principles of free speech at a congressional hearing about antisemitism Tuesday, but free speech advocates say they aren’t convinced they’ll follow through on their commitments, they told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Harvard President Claudine Gay, University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) President Liz Magill and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) President Sally Kornbluth appealed to free speech principles when refusing to say if calling for the genocide of Jews constituted their colleges’ codes of conduct at a House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing. Two free speech organizations said that it’s unlikely that this appeal to free speech will result in action, and that it’s likely political posturing. (RELATED: House Committee Opens Investigation Into Antisemitism At Elite Universities After ‘Absolutely Unacceptable’ Testimony)
“Hypocrisy and double standards on free speech have ruled college campuses for decades. The answer to this unequal application of censorial speech codes isn’t to create more censorial speech codes, it’s to eliminate them. Will colleges do this? I’ve seen administrators spend years operating on pure political calculation and not principles. If this moment is what it takes for them to discover their scruples, so be it. I’ll take it. But I’m not holding my breath,” Nico Perrino, executive vice president of the Foundation of Individual Rights and Expression, told the DCNF.
[Screenshot – YouTube – House Committee on the Education and the Workforce]
“The hearings demonstrated the lack of credibility the leaders of our elite institutions have on free expression and diversity of thought,” Steve McGuire, Paul & Karen Levy fellow in Campus Freedom at the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, told the DCNF.
“I’m concerned that the hearings could lead to more restrictions on campus speech if institutions respond by turning to their DEI offices or expanding speech codes, bias response teams, and other mechanisms used to suppress speech and control thought on campus,” McGuire continued.
Speech codes on college campuses are often strict in what constitutes abuse and are unequally enforced, free speech experts told the DCNF.
Mandatory Title IX training sessions for Harvard undergraduates teach that making fun of fat people and being normal sexually perpetuates “violence,” according to the Washington Free Beacon. The training sessions also taught that “using the wrong pronouns” is “abuse,” and “words used to lower a person’s self-worth” are “verbal abuse.”
Harvard rescinded an offer to Kyle Kashuv, a shooting survivor and gun rights activist, in 2019 because of alleged racist comments he made when he was 16- years -old, according to the Harvard Crimson. Feminist philosopher Devin Buckley was disinvited in 2022 due to her opinions on trans issues. Buckley previously expressed the view that a biological man cannot become a biological woman.
UPenn initiated disciplinary actions against conservative law professor Amy Wax in 2022 over speech the university claimed was “antithetical to the University’s mission.” Wax previously made comments saying that gay people are not fit to be parents and that affirmative action leaves black people not ready for college, among other things.
“Things like “mis-pronouning” someone or stating a conservative political opinion are free speech, and it is inexcusable for colleges to crack down on this sort of activity while at the same time permitting pro-Hamas students to openly call for genocide,” Don Daugherty, senior litigation counsel at the Defense for Freedom Institute, told the DCNF.
Harvard, UPenn and MIT did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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