Poliakoff, McGuire: MIT poised to secure free expression on campus – Boston Herald

How do you bring about a free speech turnaround on campus? Maybe, just maybe, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is on the verge of that achievement.

On Sept. 30, 2021, MIT committed what many in American higher education consider a grievous violation of its tradition of free speech and academic freedom. Having invited the distinguished University of Chicago geophysicist Dorian Abbot to deliver its prestigious John Carson Lecture, it abruptly disinvited him after progressive activists objected to his critiques of affirmative action and faculty hires based on race and gender.

Significant soul-searching in the MIT community followed. A Working Group on Free Expression was created, and now it has released its 56-page report. The report contains a Statement on Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom, which the working group has called on the MIT faculty to adopt.

The proposed statement proclaims that MIT unequivocally endorses the principles of freedom of expression and academic freedom and adds that we cannot prohibit speech that some experience as offensive or injurious. This is exactly right. As Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., wrote, the true test of our commitment to free expression is whether we protect not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate.

The statement also acknowledges the importance of intellectual diversity, noting that diversity of thought is an essential ingredient of academic excellence. Since great science emerges from challenging accepted beliefs and a competition of ideas, MIT will find renewed strength if it embraces heterodoxy.

Dorian Abbot and all those concerned about his treatment at MIT should also be pleased to read that a commitment to free expression includes hearing and hosting speakers, including those whose views or opinions may not be shared by many members of the MIT community and may be harmful to some. The medicine MIT needs is to invite Professor Abbot back to deliver the lecture it canceled.

The statement could be improved by declaring unequivocally that university leaders should not take positions on pressing social and political issues on behalf of the institution. There are good models for MIT to follow. The University of North CarolinaChapel Hill recently set an example when it reconfirmed its commitment to the Chicago Principles on Freedom of Expression and adopted the Kalven Committee Report, which acknowledges that the instrument of dissent and criticism is the individual faculty member or the individual student. The university is the home and sponsor of critics; it is not itself the critic. In other words, it warns us that presidential virtue signaling is not virtuous. It chills to the marrow the individual who dissents from the institutions professed political position.

The MIT Free Speech Alliance, a group of alumni advocating for reform at the university, is pleased by the development. Chuck Davis, the groups president, said, Its a nice statement. Its not as completely unreserved as the Chicago statement, but were very happy with it.

Davis added, however, that the group still has concerns around its adoption by the MIT community and specifically the administration. He remarked, Weve been clear with the Alumni Association that were going to stay engaged. Think of us as the friendly in-house monitors. We will be keeping an eye on how MIT lives up to the statement while encouraging them to adopt it in some way thats more binding.

The MIT faculty have an important decision to make. They should strengthen the working groups proposed statement and then adopt it. But they and the university administration should also recognize that this is only a first step. If they want MIT to be a gold standard for free expression, and MIT should, then they need to walk the walk and make the vision of the statement a reality on campus. They should start by ensuring commitment to free expression a key criterion in their upcoming presidential search.

Michael B. Poliakoff is the president of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni. Follow him on Twitter @PoliakoffACTA. Steven McGuire is the Paul & Karen Levy Fellow in Campus Freedom at the American Council of Trustees and Alumni. Follow him on Twitter @sfmcguire79.

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Poliakoff, McGuire: MIT poised to secure free expression on campus - Boston Herald