National News 

Watching world events and controversies unfold, such as Russian control of news on the war in Ukraine, may give us a sense of First Amendment pride here. Yet make no mistake: Our nation struggles daily with the impact of and limits on free expression in classrooms, media, social channels and the public square. More than ever, especially among those of us entrusted with leading America’s colleges and universities, we see the need to articulate and help build the skills and dispositions enabled by free expression. We recognize the challenge. Civil discourse requires openness to hard truths, a commitment to facts as a public good, recognition and discussion of what may be perceived as hateful or offensive, and understanding that honorable people may deeply disagree. As our faculty, students, staff and graduates grow these capacities, they are better prepared to contribute to bringing society together rather than pulling it apart.

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https://richmond.com/opinion/columnists/column-free-expression-is-a-foundation-of-excellence-in-education/article_02b639f7-f3dc-52cc-a840-98b0a8434645.html

The (college) kids are not alright. While it may come as no surprise at this point, a new analysis spotlights just how hostile to free speech our system of higher education has become — and it’s getting worse.

The nonpartisan Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression just released its updated campus free-speech rankings, which evaluate 486 US colleges and universities. The group finds that the vast majority of these schools restrict free speech.

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https://nypost.com/2022/12/14/after-a-15-year-decline-more-colleges-have-become-hostile-to-free-speech/

Now that the autumn semester is well underway, it is worth asking whether students have a chance to participate in free and open debate. The short answer is “No, they don’t.” They don’t have a chance to explore unpopular ideas and controversial opinions. They are “protected” from ideas that might make them uncomfortable. What’s being stifled here is more than speech. It’s their education and, with it, their preparation to live in a tolerant society, where fellow citizens hold different views.

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https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2022/09/30/restoring_free_speech_at_our_universities_148260.html

Freedom of expression and competition among a very few extraordinary people are at the heart of major advancements in human history. When both are allowed to flourish, everyone benefits. When either one, or both, are suppressed in any way for any individual, we all suffer the consequences.

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https://nsjonline.com/article/2022/06/hill-free-thought-and-competition-of-ideas/

When persons of means contemplate death, the question of where to leave their financial assets becomes acute. If they are higher education graduates, their former campuses have “advancement teams” ready to answer questions, provide forms, and urge investments in their institutions. Sometimes they will appeal to altruism, sometimes ideology, and sometimes ego. Would you like to have your name on this activity or building? Such administrators believe that “where there is a Will, there is a way.”

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https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2022/06/dont-write-a-blank-check-to-your-alma-mater/

Concern about the proliferation of hate speech motivates many who oppose the recent acquisition of Twitter by billionaire Elon Musk, who says he plans to turn the heavily moderated platform into a bastion for free speech. Sources ranging from writers at major news publications to CEOs have voiced fears that free-speech-friendly policies will make the platform a haven for “totally lawless hate, bigotry, and misogyny,” as actress Jameela Jamil put it in her farewell-to-Twitter tweet.

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https://www.persuasion.community/p/some-lessons-from-the-sorry-history?r=2gh8e&s=r&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Readers of these pages are well aware that free speech, academic freedom and viewpoint diversity are in big trouble at U.S. universities. But many of those worried over the state of campuses are almost resigned to the idea that forces of illegal intolerance have won.

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https://www.uncafsa.org/_files/ugd/2cd70d_6ba209bd56c348f4904a7f4460a565d0.pdf

Eleven days ago the Editorial Board of the Cavalier Daily, the University of Virginia student newspaper, opined that it could not condone the “platforming” of former Vice President Mike Pence by allowing him to speak on the university grounds.

The blowback has been gratifying to see.

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https://www.baconsrebellion.com/wp/what-is-free-speech-without-intellectual-diversity/

More than 100 students at Yale Law School attempted to shout down a bipartisan panel on civil liberties, intimidating attendees and causing so much chaos that police were eventually called to escort panelists out of the building.

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https://freebeacon.com/campus/hundreds-of-yale-law-students-disrupt-bipartisan-free-speech-event/

In July 2020, a Princeton University professor, Joshua Katz, wrote an article containing provocative language that generated controversy on campus. While voicing strong disagreement with that language, Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber clearly and publicly stated a few days later that it was protected by Princeton’s university-wide rule on free speech. But since then, through other Princeton officials, the university has for over a year viciously attacked Professor Katz as a racist on its website and elsewhere for the exact same language. These attacks have clearly violated the Princeton free speech rule, as well as other Princeton rules.

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https://www.mindingthecampus.org/2022/03/08/how-princeton-eviscerated-its-free-speech-rule-and-covered-it-up/?utm_source=NAS+Email+General&utm_campaign=3ec410a101-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_407924b2a9-3ec410a101-204219898&mc_cid=3ec410a101&mc_eid=6d7f4f25ce

It started as a crude joke among friends at the University of Michigan’s Student Veterans of America chapter, one member ribbing another in an online chat about her sexual proclivity.

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https://www.nationalreview.com/news/how-michigans-ballooning-dei-bureaucracy-stifled-speech-and-divided-campus/

Today, Dean Theodore Ruger of the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School did an about-face, abandoning both his earlier defense of the importance of faculty expressive rights and his university’s strong policies purporting to secure those rights.

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https://www.thefire.org/penn-caves-to-pressure-initiates-disciplinary-proceedings-against-tenured-law-professor-amy-wax/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_campaign=Newsdesk

Only a few years ago, several well-established features of the current political landscape were too absurd to be taken seriously.

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https://www.wsj.com/articles/can-politics-get-better-higher-ed-college-university-education-crt-defund-police-radical-progressives-11642174342?st=tcl6lj488wsc1kk&reflink=share_mobilewebshare

College is hard enough without having your progressive values challenged. It’s important to make sure that your learning space is a safe and equitable environment. There is nothing worse in life than a. micro-aggression under the guise of an options

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https://babylonbee.com/news/8-telltale-signs-your-college-professor-is-a-secret-conservative?fbclid=IwAR29uKpZwJXFyijZDNNAeV2dlwfcwe0xUOfHTsyemQyQ6KMl_PDG6s4d63c

College administrators are now acknowledging they have created environments on their campuses that diminish free expression and choke intellectual liveliness.

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https://thehill.com/opinion/education/587530-admitting-it-the-first-step-college-administrators-acknowledge-free/

Alumni Free Speech Alliance created to support free speech at colleges.

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https://video.foxnews.com/v/6277847216001#sp=show-clips

The novel coronavirus has had a massive impact on colleges, and that includes college admissions. Because of stay-at-home orders, virtual learning, and cancelled SAT and ACT exam dates, among other things, many universities are aware that it might be difficult or impossible for incoming high school seniors to take and do well on standardized tests in time for application deadlines.

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https://blog.prepscholar.com/colleges-dont-require-sat-act-scores-2020-admissions-covid

Wokeism,” America’s new civil religion, draws on elements of neo-Marxism, critical race theory, social justice and identity politics. Its adherents believe it will lead to a more just society. Its detractors, on the other hand, believe its “cancel culture” will push civil society to the brink. And, for the “woke,” either will do.

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https://www.deseret.com/2021/6/20/22516382/my-road-to-cancellation

Two years ago Cornell University asked a California real-estate developer and longtime donor for a seven-figure contribution.

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