Congratulations to the University of Chicago for Supporting Free Speech on Campus
This morning, a Google search for “University of Chicago” will yield a variety of news articles written about an open letter to incoming freshman getting ready to begin their university experience at one of America’s leading Ivy League equivalent schools. This letter, which has drawn both intense criticism and exuberant applause in the short time since its publication, informed students that the University of Chicago would not engage in the now-common practices of providing safe spaces and trigger warnings to its students. From this letter, only one thought comes immediately into my mind: Congratulations, University of Chicago!
In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past two to three years, let’s take a look at the practices that the university has just roundly rejected. Safe spaces are, in theory at least, physical places where groups of people can come together to express some aspect of themselves without objection or criticism (gathering spaces exclusively for African Americans make for a prominent example). In a different sense, safe spaces can also exist in the digital realm, where they take the form of sites or forums where people can share their thoughts on a certain subject and criticisms will generally be monitored and removed. Trigger warnings, on the other hand, are warnings placed at the front of certain forms of written, spoken or recorded content meant to inform potential readers or viewers that certain types of material will be discussed in said content. For example, some students have requested that trigger warnings be applied to pieces of classic literature containing themes of war, racism, rape and other such controversial topics. Both are relatively recent introductions to the American university system, having been pushed by what has come to be called the regressive left.
These concepts, however well-intentioned they may have been at their inception, have effectively gutted the freedom of intellectual debate and inquiry at some of the great western universities. Calls from students to censor or even ban certain forms of speech and expression have left universities as renowned as Harvard and Yale at the mercy of students who have come to believe that safety and comfort, rather than rigorous intellectual pursuits, are the core purpose of a university’s existence. In many prominent cases, the ideas of the left on college and university campuses have even forced faculty members to resign, while many of their former colleagues and students alike are left unable to express their ideas openly for fear of punishment, firing or expulsion as a result of offending the minority of students who actually believe in these forms of censorship. Thus, the great universities of the United States and the United Kingdom have come to be held hostage by student bodies that cannot fathom the idea of being disagreed with, let alone exposed to ideas that might offend or discomfort them in some way.
If you are among the people that agree with speech and expression restrictions on university campuses, don’t look to attend the University of Chicago, as you will be sorely disappointed by the commitment to completely free speech that you will find there. Rather than effectively segregating students of different backgrounds to keep them from being exposed to ideas they may find unpleasant, the Midwestern university has consistently bucked the trend by making it clear that its campus is an open and free marketplace for the exchange and competition of any and all ideas. Safe spaces, trigger warnings and shutting down of speech that may offend some students are not on the menu at this university, making it one of very few schools of its caliber that still caters to students who seek such an intellectually free environment.
Whether there is still a place in the marketplace of educational services for such an open university, only time will tell. Whether there is or not, however, one thing is clear: Students attending the University of Chicago will continue to gain access to a free marketplace of competing and contradictory ideas that they can entertain, ponder and ultimately accept or reject based on merit, rather than what someone else thinks is appropriate or inappropriate. As several major universities of the western world edge ever closer to Orwell’s nightmare, those of us who wait with bated breath to see where the madness ends can take consolation in the fact that at least one great university will not begin offering classes in Newspeak. Congratulations, University of Chicago, for being one of the last great bastions of classical liberalism in America’s educational system.
-Duncan
On the Mind is a collaborative news and opinion project headed by three politically-minded millennial contributors. To see more of our content, view regular posts and listen to our weekly podcast, follow us on Facebook.
Image Credit: By Crimsonmaroon at English Wikipedia (Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons.) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons