last year at a well-known American
College a group of students invited a
controversial scholar to campus to
deliver an address this particular
scholar had written books and essays
that many found controversial and the
plan was that he was going to come and
address the audience and after which a
professor at the college someone who did
not agree with them who was not a fan of
his ideas was going to interview him and
after that the students themselves would
have an opportunity to ask questions and
to dialogue with the speaker this kind
of event is at the heart of what a
university is all about colleges and
universities have many different
functions but most fundamentally they’re
designed to be places where ideas can be
explored debated discussed in the
pursuit of truth and in that sense
universities can be thought of as the
ultimate marketplace of ideas as a
first-generation college student myself
who went on to become a university
professor and eventually a university
president I know that my higher
education my college education
dramatically changed my life I grew up
in a modest blue-collar fishing
community in South Texas where I worked
all through high school as a deckhand on
a shrimp boat my parents owned a small
business and they did not have the
opportunity to go to college and I
remember my first day at university
feeling a bit like an imposter wondering
if I had what it took to succeed and
looking back now I realized that the
most important part of my education was
developing the ability to deal with
ideas through the process of critical
discourse in fact it’s that kind of
discourse that afforded me the
intellectual humility to realize that I
don’t have all the answers and I have a
I’m worrying that we’re beginning to
lose the integrity of that kind of
discourse at college campuses across the
country if everyone comes to the table
with the same biases and if the answers
to the important questions are all
preordained from the beginning the
marketplace of ideas can’t function by
inviting a controversial speaker to
campus the students were affording
themselves the opportunity and indeed in
fording the whole community the
opportunity to learn something new to
challenge their way of thinking perhaps
to clear up misunderstandings or to even
sharpen their counter arguments against
his ideas either way they were fostering
the idea of what a university is all
about so as that speaker stepped up to
the podium to deliver his address the
crowd of over 400 students in the room
erupted in jeers they refused to allow
him to speak various administrators at
the college stepped up to the podium and
implored the students to allow the
speaker to continue but to no avail
the professor the one who was scheduled
to interview him the one who did not
agree with his ideas was not a fan
stepped up to the podium and said to the
students I’ve spent a lot of time
developing really hard questions please
allow him to speak she begged the
students to allow him to continue but
the protests only grew louder so
eventually the event organizers
realizing that the the talk was not
going to be able to go on as scheduled
announced that it would be moved to a
secure location elsewhere on campus
where it would be live streamed for
anyone interested to watch and while the
the talk was being live streamed groups
of students roamed through the campus
chanting and activating fire alarms if
you want to develop a muscle you have to
stretch it beyond its normal functional
range you have to stretch it and
challenge it and so it is with the mind
if you want to develop your mind muscles
you have to stretch them to deal with
uncomfortable ideas
rush them beyond their normal comfort
zone and in fact the university can be
thought of as a sort of gem for the mind
a place where one’s mind muscles are
stretched and tested and challenged with
the goal of becoming a deeper and more
critical thinker by refusing to allow
the speaker to speak the students were
depriving themselves and the community
of the opportunity to stretch their own
mind muscles to learn something new to
challenge their own arguments against
his perspective I can understand in this
particular case I myself disagree with
some of the scholarship of this of this
particular speaker but it’s precisely
because I disagree with him that I would
welcome the opportunity to hear him and
to engage him in dialogue so how did the
story end well after the presentation
the professor at the college was
escorting the guest the speaker to a
waiting car when they were descended
upon by a mob of angry students one of
the students grabbed the professor by
her hair threw her violently to the
ground injuring her neck and giving her
a concussion the security personnel
nearby managed to get her and the the
guest speaker into the waiting car at
which point the students started banging
on the car and rocking it eventually the
car was able to escape and the professor
was treated for her concussion at a
local hospital now I wish I could say
this was an isolated incident but it’s
not over the past five years there have
been a growing number of incidents like
this in which students shout down
speakers at college campuses speakers
that they disagree with and I wish I
could say that this these kinds of
closing down of discourse within the
Academy was limited to angry students or
controversial speakers but it’s not for
example last year a group of scholars
submitted a paper to a prestigious
mathematics journal
in the usual way the paper underwent
peer-review was accepted for publication
but then mysteriously before being
published it was unaccepted now that’s
very unusual with an academic publishing
to have a paper undergo peer review only
to be unaccepted right before being
published the paper was then resubmitted
to a second prestigious mathematics
journal and the same thing happened
underwent peer review accepted for
publication only to be unaccepted it
turns out that in both cases the paper
was unaccepted not because the editors
of the journal discovered after the fact
after peer review some kind of
methodological flaws but because of the
protests of activists who didn’t like
the political implications of the paper
in fact they threatened the journal
articles the journal editors with trying
to shut down their journals if they
didn’t unaccept the paper i fear that
these kinds of incidents are really only
the tip of the iceberg they reflect a
larger phenomenon happening in society
as a whole where it’s getting harder and
harder to have honest conversations
about really difficult topics with those
who think differently than us
with those who are not part of our
immediate tribe ask yourself this
question how often do you have
conversations about the really big
topics controversial or difficult topics
with those who think differently than
you with those who hold fundamentally
different perspectives or beliefs than
you and further do you seek out those
kind of conversations or do you actively
try to avoid them we live in a society
more and more increasingly where we live
in self-contained intellectual bubbles
where we don’t speak honestly about
important topics with those who are not
part of our tribe now I should add that
I am sure everyone involved in both of
these incidents believed that they were
doing the right thing
they were genuinely motivated by their
deeply held convictions based on their
lived experience and trying to make the
world a better place
I can relate I
stand in both of these cases I myself
have questions about the scholarship in
question or at least the implications of
the scholarship but here’s the problem
the best of intentions can sometimes
lead down very bad paths to very dark
places by shutting down scholarship but
by studying shutting down discourse we
don’t learn we don’t grow we don’t allow
ourselves to correct the errors in our
own thinking nor to sharpen our
arguments against bad ideas by shutting
down scholarship we shut down the
marketplace of ideas there are many
important institutions in society
religious institutions businesses but
they limit the range of ideas on the
menu for discussion it’s only at
universities where the full panoply of
ideas are open for discussion and debate
and when universities abdicate that
function they do it a service not only
to their students but to society as a
whole as a university president I
believe I have a special obligation to
do what I can to try to foster an
ecosystem in which robust but civil and
respectful discourse about difficult and
controversial ideas can flourish there
are many things that working together we
must do to strengthen the integrity of
the university as the marketplace of
ideas first and foremost we must
encourage robust discourse respectful
civil and robust discourse about
difficult ideas both inside and outside
the classroom we must foster the art of
deep listening of really trying to
understand the perspective of our
interlocutor rather than reacting with
knee-jerk defensiveness we must make
ourselves vulnerable by being willing to
put our ideas on the table and invite
criticism invite scrutiny in order to
reveal their flaws we must seek out
actively
seek out information that runs counter
to our pre-existing biases and beliefs
for example I read the newspaper every
day and my favorite part of the paper is
the editorial page and when I go to the
editorial page I intentionally look for
essays that I’m most likely to disagree
with because that’s where I’m most apt
to learn something new
likewise we should try to diversify the
sources of our information we should
look for our news from different TV
channels from different news magazines
we should listen to podcasts from
different authors read books from
different perspectives and different
authors and finally when our faculty and
professional staff come under attack for
trying to foster the kinds of discourse
that I’m describing we must stand by
them at the University of New England
we’re trying to do precisely this kind
of work our faculty sponsor workshops
and presentations and symposia on a wide
range of topics from various different
perspectives as president I recently
instituted a program called the
president’s forum where we bring
speakers from different perspectives
divergent perspectives on a difficult
topic to have a moderated conversation
with deep audience participation and if
students complain or or express a
concern that an idea or a presenter
makes them feel uncomfortable we take
time to listen to them to genuinely
listen to their concerns and we use it
as a teachable moment to help them
appreciate the importance of dealing
with uncomfortable ideas now I need add
this does not mean that anything goes
there are legitimate limits to
expression on campus we must draw the
line at speech that incites violence or
true harassment we can also draw the
line we can also place limits on speech
that is truly clearly in bad faith and
what do I mean by bad faith I mean when
one deliberately knowingly intentionally
misrepresents the perspective of one’s
opponent simply to score points when one
is more interested in hurling bombs than
engaging an honest discourse now having
said that we have to be very careful not
to use those two principles as pretext
for shutting down ideas just because we
don’t like them with roots dating back
to antiquity the university is one of
the oldest institutions we’ve created
universities play absolutely vital roles
in encouraging human flourishing my own
university education provided me the
mind muscles to thrive in a complex
world let’s make sure that future
generations have that same opportunity
thank you [Applause]
College a group of students invited a
controversial scholar to campus to
deliver an address this particular
scholar had written books and essays
that many found controversial and the
plan was that he was going to come and
address the audience and after which a
professor at the college someone who did
not agree with them who was not a fan of
his ideas was going to interview him and
after that the students themselves would
have an opportunity to ask questions and
to dialogue with the speaker this kind
of event is at the heart of what a
university is all about colleges and
universities have many different
functions but most fundamentally they’re
designed to be places where ideas can be
explored debated discussed in the
pursuit of truth and in that sense
universities can be thought of as the
ultimate marketplace of ideas as a
first-generation college student myself
who went on to become a university
professor and eventually a university
president I know that my higher
education my college education
dramatically changed my life I grew up
in a modest blue-collar fishing
community in South Texas where I worked
all through high school as a deckhand on
a shrimp boat my parents owned a small
business and they did not have the
opportunity to go to college and I
remember my first day at university
feeling a bit like an imposter wondering
if I had what it took to succeed and
looking back now I realized that the
most important part of my education was
developing the ability to deal with
ideas through the process of critical
discourse in fact it’s that kind of
discourse that afforded me the
intellectual humility to realize that I
don’t have all the answers and I have a
I’m worrying that we’re beginning to
lose the integrity of that kind of
discourse at college campuses across the
country if everyone comes to the table
with the same biases and if the answers
to the important questions are all
preordained from the beginning the
marketplace of ideas can’t function by
inviting a controversial speaker to
campus the students were affording
themselves the opportunity and indeed in
fording the whole community the
opportunity to learn something new to
challenge their way of thinking perhaps
to clear up misunderstandings or to even
sharpen their counter arguments against
his ideas either way they were fostering
the idea of what a university is all
about so as that speaker stepped up to
the podium to deliver his address the
crowd of over 400 students in the room
erupted in jeers they refused to allow
him to speak various administrators at
the college stepped up to the podium and
implored the students to allow the
speaker to continue but to no avail
the professor the one who was scheduled
to interview him the one who did not
agree with his ideas was not a fan
stepped up to the podium and said to the
students I’ve spent a lot of time
developing really hard questions please
allow him to speak she begged the
students to allow him to continue but
the protests only grew louder so
eventually the event organizers
realizing that the the talk was not
going to be able to go on as scheduled
announced that it would be moved to a
secure location elsewhere on campus
where it would be live streamed for
anyone interested to watch and while the
the talk was being live streamed groups
of students roamed through the campus
chanting and activating fire alarms if
you want to develop a muscle you have to
stretch it beyond its normal functional
range you have to stretch it and
challenge it and so it is with the mind
if you want to develop your mind muscles
you have to stretch them to deal with
uncomfortable ideas
rush them beyond their normal comfort
zone and in fact the university can be
thought of as a sort of gem for the mind
a place where one’s mind muscles are
stretched and tested and challenged with
the goal of becoming a deeper and more
critical thinker by refusing to allow
the speaker to speak the students were
depriving themselves and the community
of the opportunity to stretch their own
mind muscles to learn something new to
challenge their own arguments against
his perspective I can understand in this
particular case I myself disagree with
some of the scholarship of this of this
particular speaker but it’s precisely
because I disagree with him that I would
welcome the opportunity to hear him and
to engage him in dialogue so how did the
story end well after the presentation
the professor at the college was
escorting the guest the speaker to a
waiting car when they were descended
upon by a mob of angry students one of
the students grabbed the professor by
her hair threw her violently to the
ground injuring her neck and giving her
a concussion the security personnel
nearby managed to get her and the the
guest speaker into the waiting car at
which point the students started banging
on the car and rocking it eventually the
car was able to escape and the professor
was treated for her concussion at a
local hospital now I wish I could say
this was an isolated incident but it’s
not over the past five years there have
been a growing number of incidents like
this in which students shout down
speakers at college campuses speakers
that they disagree with and I wish I
could say that this these kinds of
closing down of discourse within the
Academy was limited to angry students or
controversial speakers but it’s not for
example last year a group of scholars
submitted a paper to a prestigious
mathematics journal
in the usual way the paper underwent
peer-review was accepted for publication
but then mysteriously before being
published it was unaccepted now that’s
very unusual with an academic publishing
to have a paper undergo peer review only
to be unaccepted right before being
published the paper was then resubmitted
to a second prestigious mathematics
journal and the same thing happened
underwent peer review accepted for
publication only to be unaccepted it
turns out that in both cases the paper
was unaccepted not because the editors
of the journal discovered after the fact
after peer review some kind of
methodological flaws but because of the
protests of activists who didn’t like
the political implications of the paper
in fact they threatened the journal
articles the journal editors with trying
to shut down their journals if they
didn’t unaccept the paper i fear that
these kinds of incidents are really only
the tip of the iceberg they reflect a
larger phenomenon happening in society
as a whole where it’s getting harder and
harder to have honest conversations
about really difficult topics with those
who think differently than us
with those who are not part of our
immediate tribe ask yourself this
question how often do you have
conversations about the really big
topics controversial or difficult topics
with those who think differently than
you with those who hold fundamentally
different perspectives or beliefs than
you and further do you seek out those
kind of conversations or do you actively
try to avoid them we live in a society
more and more increasingly where we live
in self-contained intellectual bubbles
where we don’t speak honestly about
important topics with those who are not
part of our tribe now I should add that
I am sure everyone involved in both of
these incidents believed that they were
doing the right thing
they were genuinely motivated by their
deeply held convictions based on their
lived experience and trying to make the
world a better place
I can relate I
stand in both of these cases I myself
have questions about the scholarship in
question or at least the implications of
the scholarship but here’s the problem
the best of intentions can sometimes
lead down very bad paths to very dark
places by shutting down scholarship but
by studying shutting down discourse we
don’t learn we don’t grow we don’t allow
ourselves to correct the errors in our
own thinking nor to sharpen our
arguments against bad ideas by shutting
down scholarship we shut down the
marketplace of ideas there are many
important institutions in society
religious institutions businesses but
they limit the range of ideas on the
menu for discussion it’s only at
universities where the full panoply of
ideas are open for discussion and debate
and when universities abdicate that
function they do it a service not only
to their students but to society as a
whole as a university president I
believe I have a special obligation to
do what I can to try to foster an
ecosystem in which robust but civil and
respectful discourse about difficult and
controversial ideas can flourish there
are many things that working together we
must do to strengthen the integrity of
the university as the marketplace of
ideas first and foremost we must
encourage robust discourse respectful
civil and robust discourse about
difficult ideas both inside and outside
the classroom we must foster the art of
deep listening of really trying to
understand the perspective of our
interlocutor rather than reacting with
knee-jerk defensiveness we must make
ourselves vulnerable by being willing to
put our ideas on the table and invite
criticism invite scrutiny in order to
reveal their flaws we must seek out
actively
seek out information that runs counter
to our pre-existing biases and beliefs
for example I read the newspaper every
day and my favorite part of the paper is
the editorial page and when I go to the
editorial page I intentionally look for
essays that I’m most likely to disagree
with because that’s where I’m most apt
to learn something new
likewise we should try to diversify the
sources of our information we should
look for our news from different TV
channels from different news magazines
we should listen to podcasts from
different authors read books from
different perspectives and different
authors and finally when our faculty and
professional staff come under attack for
trying to foster the kinds of discourse
that I’m describing we must stand by
them at the University of New England
we’re trying to do precisely this kind
of work our faculty sponsor workshops
and presentations and symposia on a wide
range of topics from various different
perspectives as president I recently
instituted a program called the
president’s forum where we bring
speakers from different perspectives
divergent perspectives on a difficult
topic to have a moderated conversation
with deep audience participation and if
students complain or or express a
concern that an idea or a presenter
makes them feel uncomfortable we take
time to listen to them to genuinely
listen to their concerns and we use it
as a teachable moment to help them
appreciate the importance of dealing
with uncomfortable ideas now I need add
this does not mean that anything goes
there are legitimate limits to
expression on campus we must draw the
line at speech that incites violence or
true harassment we can also draw the
line we can also place limits on speech
that is truly clearly in bad faith and
what do I mean by bad faith I mean when
one deliberately knowingly intentionally
misrepresents the perspective of one’s
opponent simply to score points when one
is more interested in hurling bombs than
engaging an honest discourse now having
said that we have to be very careful not
to use those two principles as pretext
for shutting down ideas just because we
don’t like them with roots dating back
to antiquity the university is one of
the oldest institutions we’ve created
universities play absolutely vital roles
in encouraging human flourishing my own
university education provided me the
mind muscles to thrive in a complex
world let’s make sure that future
generations have that same opportunity
thank you [Applause]
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