Going Beyond Proclamation: Implementing Free Speech Principles

In response to many universities’ abandonment of free speech principles, defenders of higher education have turned to external pressures for university reform. Stanley Kurtz, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, has partnered with the Goldwater Institute to craft model legislation for state legislators to protect free speech at public universities and colleges.¹ The National Association of Scholars lists possible amendments to the Higher Education Act (due for renewal since 2013) and calls on Congress to “restore First Amendment rights, and genuine intellectual freedom to…college campuses.”² Others, such as Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) board of directors chairman Harvey Silverglate, call for the U.S. Department of Education to issue a “Dear Colleague” letter warning of free speech infractions and/or to pass legislation that would defund institutions that violate campus free speech rights.³