The protests at Boston University erupted due to the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike, which the union waged against Warners Bros. Discovery and several other Hollywood studios for poor wages and other mistreatment. Zaslav, the president and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, faced chants, signs and protestors picketing in front of the entrance to the event.

While Brown defended the right to protest and asserted its function to sustain a liberal democracy, Brown repelled the behavior he believes is an offspring of “cancel culture.” Instead of vigorous debate and discussion, he sees this new trend as a mutation to “gain power, not reason.” And BU’s president is not alone in being fed up with students’ interpretation of free speech.

Around the country, several college leaders have spoken up to defend free speech against a student body that they believe steps on free expression. In leaders’ views, these actions form a hostility toward open dialogue and counter the mission of their respective universities. Their opinion isn’t unfounded either; Undergraduate students are by far the most likely demographic to attempt imposing sanctions on college professors.

More from UB: These schools are working smarter, not harder, to boost international student enrollment

Dean Jenny Martinez – Stanford Law School

In March, students stormed a conservative campus event that Trump-appointed U.S. Circuit Judge Kyle Duncan was attending. Facing hundreds of heckling protestors led by the law school’s associate DEI dean, Duncan’s planned talk devolved into a fiasco filled with “idiots,” “hypocrites” and “bullies,” according to Duncan.

Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne and Law School Dean Jenny Martinez quickly issued an apology, and Martinez was quick to defend why. In a 10-page open letter to the law school’s community, the dean wrote that some protestors “crossed the line” from protest to disruption. “There is temptation to a system in which people holding views perceived by some as harmful or offensive are not allowed to speak,” Martinez wrote. “History teaches us that this is a temptation to be avoided.”

Martinez believes the DEI associate dean and the students worked counter to what diversity, equity, and inclusion stand for. “I believe that the commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion actually means that we must protect free expression of all views,” Martinez wrote.

In the fallout, the DEI associate dean is on leave. Because Martinez found it impossible to differentiate between the students practicing protected forms of speech and those abusing it, she found it best not to reprimand anyone. Instead, she had law school students undergo a mandatory half-day session this past spring semester on free speech and its place in the legal world.

President Martha E. Pollack & Provost Michael I. Kotlikoff – Cornell

While Brown and Martinez defended the First Amendment by calling out attempts to disrupt speech, two Cornell leaders in April denied one student resolution they believed suppresses it.

The resolution, which Cornell’s Student Assembly approved, urged instructors to provide a heads-up in class syllabi for potential “traumatic content,” such as sexual assault, hate crimes and self-harm. However, President Martha E. Pollack vetoed the resolution, writing in a statement alongside Provost Michael I. Kotlikoff that, “Such a policy would violate our faculty’s fundamental right to determine what and how to teach.” The leaders wrote that allowing students to step away from such sensitive content would be detrimental to their intellectual growth and restrict professors’ academic freedom.

The post Why these school leaders are clashing with students’ free speech judgment appeared first on University Business.

State legislatures across the country have proposed or are pending approval bills that could dramatically alter the behavior and function of the public higher education system. Specifically, 25 bills in 15 states seek to punish faculty and schools that promote conversation on “divisive concepts,” such as race, gender, sex and American history, according to the PEN America Index of Educational Gag Orders.

Champions of Higher Education, organized by PEN America and Campus Compact, has united former college and university leaders and system heads to collectively voice their dissent about recent politics that aim to increase state oversight of public education institutions.

The alliance kicked off its campaign with a statement last Friday, which to date has been signed by more than 140 former leaders. Among those on the list were nine former state university system leaders from Louisiana, Maryland, California and Wisconsin, to name a few.

“It is American colleges and universities’ reputation as bastions of intellectual freedom that makes the American system of higher education a global leader and the envy of the world—a stature threatened today by censorious legislation within our own country,” the statement read.

Current college and university leaders are forced to bite their tongues on recent legislative efforts across the country, in fear of the retribution the state may seek to lay on their institutions for voicing criticism, such as defunding their operations. Facing this “impossible choice” of having to keep quiet, Champions of Higher Education aims to speak for those who must work within the “political complexities” of being an education leader.

Leveraging their connections with like-minded legislators and cultural, medical and military leaders, participants of Champions will coordinate speaking engagements and publicize articles to educate the public on the implications of such political aggressions.

“Statements are important but they’re not sufficient,” said Patricia Okker, former president of New College of Florida who was ousted by efforts from Florida’s governor, according to USA Today. “Let’s figure out actions that we can take to address this and build support for higher education and academic freedom and freedom of expression on campus.”

Champions aim to promote the cultivation of diverse perspectives, educational independence and robust debate at public institutions. They are still looking for new voices to step in and join their allegiance as they begin their campaign.

More from UB: HBCUs take note: 4 ways to sustain enrollment following post-pandemic boom

The post Over 140 and counting former leaders push back on legislative threats to higher ed appeared first on University Business.

Politics is beginning to polarize college campuses into factions and the extent to which students and faculty are willing to go to resist hearing opposing viewpoints is increasing. A notable recent example of campus intolerance: Stanford students and an associate dean of diversity, equity and inclusion heckled a federal judge into silence during his visit, which led to Stanford’s president and law dean issuing an apology. Two conservative federal appeals court judges have decided not to hire any more graduates from Stanford Law School since the incident.

It’s not just hecklers that are inhibiting civil discourse. Intolerance is growing more violent. Police made two arrests at the University of California, Davis last month after more than a hundred people protested the arrival of a scheduled keynote speaker, Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. Similarly, Michigan Wayne State University suspended a professor for posting on social media that “it is far more admirable to kill a racist, homophobic or transphobic speaker than it is to shout them down.” And the Anti-Defamation League found that antisemitic acts of harassment, vandalism and assault on college campuses rose more than 40 percent in 2022, with 219 incidents, according to an audit. 

More from UB: How your school can maintain a healthy environment for open dialogue

In the wake of these fiascos, several state higher education systems and organizations are prioritizing healthy civil discourse on their school campuses.

Virginia

Starting this spring, the Constructive Dialogue Institute (CDI) and The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) are partnering with 12 colleges and universities to cultivate a culture of free expression and civil discourse through campus-wide dialogue initiatives. With the likes of Virginia Tech, William and Mary and James Madison University joining in, Virginia’s higher education institutions will use CDI’s evidence-based, randomized controlled trials program Perspectives to curate a space for truthful dialogue among students of different political backgrounds.

Each school promised a partnership with CDI and SCHEV for a minimum of 18 months.

“We’ve been given an intellectual toolkit with practical applications and a public square with which to learn together and restore trust in our institutions,” said William & Mary Associate Vice President for Student Engagement and Leadership Andrew D. Stelljes, according to a press release.

Louisiana

Last month, the University of Louisiana System held its first Free Expression Summit at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette campus. The summit attracted state representatives, professors and student government leaders to discuss self-censorship, student fragmentation, the first amendment and the effects of social media on campus communication. The event was so important that University of Louisiana System President Jim Henderson is looking to plan a second one and possibly more, according to The Advocate. 

“We want to open a dialogue,” said State Rep. Charles Owen, who helped found the summit. “We want to talk about where we are as a people. We are looking for balance and trying to figure out where we want to be as a society.”

North Carolina

A trained cohort of students is hosting several civil dialogue events this Spring semester across several North Carolina college and university campuses to promote civil discourse and open exchange of ideas. North Carolina Campus Engagement (NCCE) trained the North Carolina Student Ambassadors to cultivate their facilitation skills.

“We live in a time of increasing polarization and division,” said Leslie Garvin, NCCE Executive Director, according to their website. “At the same time, major challenges are threatening to dismantle our communities and world. More than ever we need young leaders with the ability to build bridges and to deliberate together to develop solutions and take action.”

This is the first cohort of student ambassadors tasked with hosting a civil discourse event. Four schools were selected for the pilot program.

The post These states are taking steps to replace unruly hecklers on campus with constructive civil discourse appeared first on University Business.

FIRE ranks the top 10 colleges across the nation in no particular order, and institutions were selected based on some of their head-scratching decisions such as circumventing a teacher’s academic freedom, removing funding from LGBTQ+ events, instating policies that would streamline firing tenured professors, and others.

This list differs from FIRE’s 2023 free speech rankings, which rated over 200 colleges. Texas A&M scored a healthy 54.59, which the website deemed “average.” However, they also made this list, leaving the school indignant.

More from UB: Four public West Virginia colleges ‘substantially’ restrict free speech

In addition to the top 10, Georgetown University (D.C) was given the lifetime censorship award for it gaining the attention of FIRE top-10 ranking for a record fourth time. Recently, it suspended a faculty member in response to a tweet. Georgetown stood at spot 200 – out of 203 schools – on its 2023 free speech rankings.

Let’s take a look at who FIRE identified as the worst offenders of the first amendment in 2022.

If the school also made it on FIRE’s free speech rankings, that will also be determined.

Texas A&M – free speech ranking: #40

Officials dropped sponsorship of an LGBTQ+ drag event and disallowed students to finance the event with profits from the previous year.

The school also tried to merge its 130-year-old independent newspaper into its journalism department but backed down amid protests.

Collin College (Texas)

Referred to by FIRE as the “epicenter of censorship in Texas,” the Texas college fired a history professor last January who advocated for the removal of Confederate statues.

Emporia State (Kansas)

The college adopted a policy that allowed administrators to fire tenured faculty with 30 days’ notice. The school has since fired 33 faculty members.

Administrators can fire tenured faculty for vague causes such as “operational costs” or “realignment of resources,” which leaves “these terms ripe for abuse against faculty who do not speak, write, or teach to the university’s liking,” according to FIRE.

Hamline University (Minnesota)

The Minnesota school fired a professor for what it claimed was an “Islamophobic” act by the professor showing her students a 14th-century painting of the prophet Muhammad—during a lesson on Islamic art history.

Hamline’s defense: “Respect for the observant Muslim students in that classroom should have superseded academic freedom.”

Loyola University (Louisiana)

The administration threated to fire a professor amid student complaints that he created a “hostile learning environment.”

Also, police officers were sent in to stop a student’s pro-choice demonstration.

University of Oregon – free speech ranking #130

Potential faculty members skeptical about Oregon’s tenants on diversity, equity, and inclusion risk poor scores by the faculty search committee. Tenured faculty also face this risk during tenure reviews.

University of Pennsylvania – free speech ranking #202

A professor has filed a grievance against a dean for lack of impartiality after she was threatened with possible termination for complaints she accrued from students about remarks she’s made. She is requesting a formal hearing amid potential sanctions.

Tennessee Tech

The school indefinitely suspended two student groups for joint-hosting a campus event that the president was “disturbed” and “offended by.”

Pennsylvania State University – free speech ranking #107

The Nittany Lions canceled a comedy show involving the president of a far-right group and a conservative comedian.

“One thing is clear: Penn State may defend free expression with words, but when actions are necessary, the university is all too willing to turn tail, fleeing from its First Amendment obligations and letting disruptors win,” FIRE writes.

Emerson (Massachusetts)

The Boston school delegitimized a student group following investigations into the group handing out stickers that criticized the Chinese government.

The post Higher ed’s worst free speech offenders of 2022 appeared first on University Business.

“The AAUP is appalled at the blatant violation of academic freedom and shared governance that the presidents of the Florida College System (FCS) have pledged to commit,” wrote the AAUP in a recent statement.

The Florida College System (FCS) is motivated by what they believe are initiatives and instruction under the guise of diversity, equity, and inclusion that is really only interested in compelling students to believe in specific ideologies, such as critical race theory.

“The FCS president remains committed to developing campus environments that uphold objectivity in teaching and learning and in professional development and that welcome all voices—environments in which students, faculty, and staff can pursue their academic interests without fear of reprisal or being ‘canceled,'” wrote FCS in their statement.

As well-intentioned as FCS might seem, AAUP isn’t buying what they’re selling.

“The FCS presidents, while giving lip service to academic freedom, have announced their intention to censor teaching and learning by expunging ideas they want to suppress,” wrote AAUP. “By dictating course content, they are also usurping the primary responsibility for the curriculum traditionally accorded the faculty under principles of shared governance.”

The association found it “hypocritical” that their interest in promoting academic freedom and cultivating a spirit of inquiry has led them to this action. It’s “telling” that the presidents of FCS are interested in only eliminating the funding for academic topics that relate to race, according to AAUP.

FCS isn’t interested in completely erasing critical race theory from the classroom, but rather, if it is part of a curriculum, it should be only viewed as one of several theories and taught in an “objective manner.” They also reaffirmed their commitment to DEI tenants that relate to nondiscrimination in hiring and professional development.

Last month, the state’s governor’s office, headed by Governor Ron DeSantis, who by this point is in a steady battle with the state’s education program, requested all expenditures from its colleges and universities that related to DEI initiatives. It’s uncertain currently how correlated this FCS statement is.

The AAUP is exploring options to defend what they view as a threat to academic freedom and shared governance.

The post AAUP on Florida College System: “We are appalled” by continued political interference appeared first on University Business.

During the Dec. 10 ceremony at the Chicago-area branch campus, Keon followed the speaker to the podium, barked out the line of gobbledygook, and said “That’s sort of my Asian version of his, uh …” before trailing off and moving on to the next matter of business. Video of the comment has since gone viral (Keon’s remarks occur at about 1:10 into the footage that remained on the university’s YouTube channel as of Tuesday afternoon.)

His “inexcusable behavior caused national and international outrage” and insulted the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, including faculty, staff, and students at Purdue Northwest, the Faculty Senate said in an open letter sent to Keon.

“Though Chancellor Keon, in response to the widespread criticism he has received, has insisted that he ‘did not intend to be hurtful,’ this suggests, at best, a highly troublesome level of ignorance, insensitivity, and lack of judgment on his part,” the Faculty Senate said in a separate statement. “But it is more than any personal racism by one particular university official; it suggests the all-but-complete ignorance of the institutionalized racism faced by Asians and other peoples of color in this country.”

If Keon does not step down, the Faculty Senate intends to call a no-confidence vote against the chancellor, ABC7Chicago reported.

In an apology posted by Keon a few days after the ceremony he said he and Purdue University Northwest take pride in being welcoming and inclusive. “I am truly sorry for my unplanned, off-the-cuff response to another speaker, as my words have caused confusion, pain, and anger,” he wrote on the university’s website. “We are all human. I made a mistake, and I assure you I did not intend to be hurtful and my comments do not reflect my personal or our institutional values.”

Keon also noted that the university had enrolled its most diverse student body within the last year and touted the creation this fall of the PRIDE Team initiative (PNW Respecting Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity) to “promote an open, respectful and welcoming culture.” The school had also assembled a group of faculty and staff with expertise in various cultural backgrounds to coordinate campus celebrations. Keon said he is now directing this group “to specifically understand and address issues of importance to the Asian American Pacific Islander community at PNW.”

My thoughts on Purdue Northwest Chancellor Thomas Keon and his racial mockery of an "Asian" language. What does it mean when a university leader mocks its Asian students even as he leads an institution that courts their very presence? For @DiverseIssues. https://t.co/hcfdoIYddW pic.twitter.com/FZ5nu37J9I

— Stephanie K. Kim (@stephaniekkim) December 19, 2022

More from UB: Higher ed costs haven’t been this high since 2008, analysis finds

The post Mockery of Asian language sparks calls for Purdue chancellor to step down appeared first on University Business.

The nonprofit Constructive Dialogue Institute says its learning portal Perspectives–formerly known as OpenMind–does, and its recent study of more than 750 students across three very different institutions shows the impact. More than 70% displayed less polarizing behavior after using it, which was 30% better than those who did not partake initially but took it later on. The CDI, which was founded by Jonathan Heidt and Caroline Mehl of NYU’s Stern School of Business, notes implementing it alongside other strategies can be effective at building much-needed discourse.

“At a time when polarization is at an all-time high and Americans are losing faith in our democracy, these results are extremely encouraging,” said Mehl, who co-authored the study with researchers Mylien Duong and Keith Welker. “We believe Perspectives can have a profound impact on improving discourse in classrooms across the country and preparing the next generation for democratic citizenship.”

Beyond bridging differences between factions, the study also showed slightly better outcomes (10% or more) for those who took part in Perspectives than those who didn’t in areas of intellectual humility or showing understanding and empathy for another’s views, and in tamping down aggressive behaviors to make their points. CDI researchers noted that students were more inclined to deescalate rather than escalate when presented with outlooks other than their own.

“Perspectives helped students be comfortable with conflict, face conflicts rather than withdraw from them, and display less hostility during conflicts,” researchers said. “Many students highlighted improvements in having conversations across differences and a greater appreciation for views other than their own.”

More from UB:

• How recently retired Monterey Bay president says colleges can improve civil dialogue
• How well does your college encourage students to freely express views?

So what is Perspectives? It is a collection of eight online lessons and peer conversations that can be customized and infused in three ways: through student orientation and the lead-up to semesters, into curriculum offerings for first-year students, and via centers for teaching and learning. In addition to sessions and Q&As, both administrators and faculty can track the progress of students, and create assessments that measure knowledge and success. They cover the basics from learning about how the mind works to managing the toughest conversations.

Developed as OpenMind back in 2017, it has evolved and been embraced by around 400 institutions and 43,000 students in some form. To see how well it was working, it conducted a big study last year of two big public four-year universities (one in the East and one in the South) and a community college in the West with students from three fields: psychology, counseling and speech communications. One drawback was that its pool didn’t turn out to be politically representative of the nation: 64% liberal, 14% conservative, though the group that did participate showed it was better served by taking the course. In other words, even those who had preconceptions were able to work through them.

Perspectives is just one way to help students from different backgrounds connect civilly. Here are a few other strategies from CDI:

• The first is for administrators to make clear that engaging in civil dialogue is fundamental to campus operations and to democracy. Events on campus with some of the same principles used in Perspectives can also help bring groups together for discussion.
• On the faculty side, one of the key messages CDI says is important is to think of classrooms as learning environments that allow students to talk and express opinions in meaningful ways.
• Structure is important to prevent dialogue from spiraling out of control. “Setting norms can be an opportunity to shape an environment that is intellectually rigorous and respectful,” they said.

The post Civil dialogue on campus can be boosted with Perspectives appeared first on University Business.

Kate Dion, who is a litigation partner at Robinson+Cole and chair of the education law industry group that helps advise higher ed clients, says colleges and universities should dust off items this summer that may need updating to ensure operations run smoothly this fall.

“Now is a really great time to reflect on what happened during the past year,” she says. “Use the opportunity to think about what went well, what could be done better, and what policies might have been implemented throughout the year that could be updated to better align with the university’s mission—initiatives like DEI and social justice. Connect that work with all the other policies on campus and make sure everything’s working together.”

The scope of key areas that need to be addressed can be daunting—from student supports to COVID guidance to study abroad and drug and alcohol policies. Even if campus leaders believe they’ve reviewed most everything, one item always must be checked. “Cybersecurity is one area where educational institutions are high targets, and insurance is expensive,” Dion says. “Staying updated tends to be a big struggle, and it affects bigger institutions and smaller institutions.”

University Business sat down with Dion to gain some insight into what institutions should be looking at in their procedures heading into the fall. Before enacting any new policies, they should be embraced by key stakeholders. “There’s no point to having a policy if no one’s going to follow it,” she says. “Make sure you can enforce them, especially when they’re not terribly popular … like masking policies.”

More from UB: The new task force idea from one big university that could be pivotal in 2022-23

Here are nine other areas colleges and universities should consider revising:

Incident response: “If there is an issue on campus, do you have the best system in place so that you can communicate with the greatest number of students? If you drafted a policy pre-COVID–and 95% of your students were residential before and now a lot fewer are, are you making sure that you’ve addressed those changes in your demographics?”

Dion says that because of the number of recent high-profile shootings, including the incident in Uvalde, colleges “should look at those [policies] and revise them or think about ways to tighten those up.”

Employee hiring: “There’s always things you can do in your in your hiring policies to do it with more sensitivity to DEI&J,” Dion says. “Most schools are not overtly discriminatory, but they may not realize that certain practices and procedures may have a disparate impact. A lot of schools have made an effort the last several years to be very broad and expansive with their hiring practices, but those schools particularly with tenure may face greater challenges in achieving quicker and more impactful changes. So, there is an education piece for any employer to continually train and make sure everybody is aware of what expectations are around DEI&J, sexual discrimination policies and mental health.”

Title IX: Dion says, “Even the institutions that have the tightest policies are always going to get issues that the Title IX coordinator is going to be new to. There are a lot of intersecting rights of different people and risks for the institution on both sides. One thing I’ve been working with clients to think about is that when we saw the change of the regulations come out in 2021, schools weren’t sure how to approach those cases that had a complaint filed before the regulation date came into effect. Then policies changed, and nobody knew which policy they should be applying.”

Free speech and civil discourse: Dion advises colleges that want to be more open to inviting controversial speakers onto campus should plan for it, with messaging about maintaining civil discourse. Leaders should let stakeholders know there could be “polarizing topics and people could be hurt or emotionally affected. Let’s strategize how we prepare in advance. It doesn’t just end with a speaker but continues with a learning experience and a healing experience for some people afterward.”

COVID-19 procedures: With stressed staff and faculty enduring COVID the past two years in certain departments, Dion says colleges should “look at who’s staffing those COVID roles, and whether they are staffed enough. If you’re going to change your policies, do you need to change the staffing? Are those people overworked? Or if they’re sharing jobs, should it be shared with somebody else?”

Study abroad: Dion recommends assessing risk expectations in the post-COVID environment before truly opening up study abroad options. “Even before COVID, we had some instances coming out where schools could be held responsible if a student got injured. When COVID came out, a lot of work was done on the fly. A lot of policies and procedures in first evaluating a student study abroad choice pre-COVID, were, ‘look at the Homeland Security website or look at the CDC website. If they’re at a certain category, we’re not going to support students going to study abroad there.’ It’s a lot more difficult now to evaluate what kind of risk an institution faces when sending a student abroad. When I look at contracts for study abroad services, I’m thinking about who the risk is on, not just assuming that the provider will take care of mitigating all the risks.”

Drugs and alcohol: “As more states have allowed recreational marijuana, and those facilities get closer to campuses, colleges still need to prohibit the use of marijuana on campus. But we also have to look at how that affects ADA policies if a student or a faculty or staff member has a medical marijuana card. And if your student conduct policy [includes] behavior off-campus, make sure that’s being addressed in your policies and that students know that when they come on campus.”

Mental health: Dion says summer is a great time to analyze mental health programs and staffing levels. “If you’re sending a lot of people off campus to receive mental health treatment, is that being done effectively? Do you need to look for more referral sources? You want to make sure that pathway has as few roadblocks as possible. Also, auditing whether students know about the resources that are offered, and how they know about it.”

Faculty burnout: “How do you address the issues around working remotely and separately, considerations of equity among employees,” Dion says. “What goals are you trying to accomplish to ensure that faculty members feel comfortable on campus?”

More opinion from UB:

Undergraduate student workers at union employers

How universities and colleges can get ahead of preferred name usage

The post Ready for the fall? 10 potential policy pitfalls college leaders must address this summer appeared first on University Business.

The past two years have highlighted just how delicate the balancing act can be of grabbing a microphone or posting on social media about fact vs. fiction, polarized political ideologies, the COVID-19 pandemic, racial justice or bans on free speech. Joey King paid a deep price to speak about hate that he said exists outside the walls of Lyon College in Arkansas. He resigned last August.

“What I had to say about protecting diversity and inclusion in an age of political extremism and white supremacy, particularly in areas like the Ozarks and Appalachia, where I’ve worked for the past six or seven years, I stand behind those comments,” King said during a panel session on Speaking the Truth at the American Association of Colleges & Universities’ annual meeting. “I don’t think it always ends the way it ended with me. Presidents can bend, but there are times when they have to break. We have to take positions that are unpopular.”

Three other current presidents—Wayne Frederick at Howard University, Eduardo Ochoa at the California State University at Monterey Bay and Patricia McGuire at Trinity Washington University—all have had to deal with crisis moments and potential backlash during the past two charged years in America. At various times, some more often than others, they have made the difficult decision to face a potential firestorm head-on. They often do it for their students, their universities and their communities. “Presidents need to model the kind of free speech that we expect our students to learn to exercise,” McGuire said. “I get asked a lot, why aren’t presidents more vocal? All presidents should be more vocal. We’re not just serving tea in the afternoon. We’re here for a purpose. We face tremendous threats to academic freedom, and presidents have to get out of their comfort zones. …I don’t think we push back hard enough sometimes on the threats to the academic freedom of the academy.”

McGuire and Frederick highlighted critical race theory, climate change and the denouncing of scientific facts around the pandemic as possible times for presidents to use that pulpit. Maguire admitted to being bolder than others about addressing issues but also pointed out that “as a president of a relatively small private university, I’m in a very different position than a president of a large public institution.” Frederick and Ochoa have taken more calculated approaches.

“You have to be mindful of the fact that you are an institution that serves all Californians,” Ochoa says. “You want to be sure that not to be perceived as partisan on political issues. But where I draw the line is where the fundamental values of the institution are being attacked. There have been some national events like the 2016 election and the Insurrection, where the community really wanted me to address the issue. You have to be very thoughtful about how you communicate our affirmation of values and rejection of anti-democratic practices without alienating people.”

More from UB: How university president says colleges can improve civil dialogue

At Howard University, located in the epicenter of politicking in Washington, DC, and with an admitted friend and alum in Vice President Kamala Harris, Frederick has said that using the pulpit can be challenging and depends on the situation. “Speaking to that truth is extremely important,” said Frederick, who as a practicing surgeon has addressed questions of vaccines and masking around COVID-19. “But the presidency is not just about telling the truth, it’s also about managing people’s reaction to the truth. Leadership style should be adapted to the circumstance.”

In 2020, he also responded in the aftermath of the George Floyd murder. “I was particularly concerned when one of the CEOs of a major company spoke about not being able to find black talent because it just didn’t exist. I was appalled by that. Higher ed’s enrollment is down 8%. Howard’s enrollment is up 26%. I found that to be a difficult thing to swallow. So I wrote an op-ed about the fact that if you fish in the same pond with the same type of salmon, that’s what you’re going to catch.”

Frederick said there are three measuring sticks he uses before he thinks about stepping to the pulpit: 1. “The moral compass is the first guide”; 2. How a topic might impact his community; and 3. What impact it may have on the mission of the institution. But one thing he does not do, aside from going on social media (where he hasn’t been in five years), is “impose my own personal politics. My job is to take away all the barriers for everybody else to express themselves.”

Ochoa rarely ever turns to the social media pulpit to discuss hot-button topics. “I use Twitter mostly to tout the accomplishments of our faculty and students on campus,” he says. “In the space of a tweet, all you can do is basically signal your position. You’re not going to persuade anybody.”

McGuire doesn’t mind addressing issues often, even on social media, as she did during the infamous mask-free Rose Garden celebration of Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court. She believes it is a higher education leader’s responsibility to do so. “Whenever there’s a public issue that affects our students, we must stand up and speak on behalf of our students,” she said. “The great example of the last few years has been both racial justice and racial equity, and the situation of DREAMers. We really do have something to say when democracy is threatened or when human values are threatened in the public square, especially by political officials. Higher education is the counterweight to government.”

Simply speaking on a topic, via a live mic, Zoom or on social media, can have an impact, but leaders say there are other opportunities to get messaging and the mission of higher ed out there to communities and the public.

CSU-Monterey Bay has held on-campus panels and gone into neighboring areas to discuss topics that affect them. Ochoa also has done 15-to-30-second radio spots to raise the profile of the institution. Frederick is doing a podcast series that at times will indirectly address some of the more high-profile issues affecting Howard and the country. McGuire hosts regular town halls so students can respond, does monthly surveys and connects every chance she gets with community members. She tells other presidents to accept all invitations that come their way.

While backlash is part of the job, these presidents are managing to hang in there.

Ochoa joked, “it’s been a challenge, but it hasn’t put me in the difficult position of having to choose the hill to die on at this point.”

McGuire retorted: “I’ve been at this for 33 years at Trinity here in Washington, and I haven’t died yet. Although at one point or another, across those three decades, I’ve made just about everybody angry—fortunately, not all at the same time, which is how I think I’ve survived.”

The post When is the right time for college presidents to speak the truth? appeared first on University Business.

That is significant on many levels, the first being that a course such as this one is being taught at all in higher education and the second that it is being done in Florida, which has become an epicenter for political divisiveness on the topic. One historian connected to a large university nearby told her, “Do you know how lucky you are to even be in a class where this is the title? Maybe I could get away with it, but I’m just not going to risk it.”

The teaching of CRT has faced opposition in more than 30 states, where legislators have sought blanket bans, most notably in K-12 schools. But it is finding a more frequent home in higher education beyond just law classes or graduate courses because it can. The Supreme Court has continually backed academic free speech.

“In the wake of George Floyd’s murder, the Black Lives Matter movement and the January 6 insurrection, students across the U.S. have been clamoring for colleges and universities to make the curriculum more responsive to current events, and not the typical monolithic canon,” Musgrave said during her session Teaching Critical Race Theory in Times of Emergency at the American Association of Colleges and Universities’ annual meeting. “Students really are the sole reason that this course got off the ground. Students are involved in these crises. So they’ve turned to us in colleges and universities for the crucial tools to make sense of it.”

But bringing it into the classroom, particularly with undergrads, is still a complicated path to weave. Getting administrator buy-in is one hurdle, and overcoming biases and misinformation is another. Presenting it in a way that isn’t polarizing but offers a more critical look at racial injustice through American history is key. Many faculty and civil rights leaders say it is worth it.

“We have laws being passed to ban the teaching of critical race theory in states like Oklahoma, Arizona, Tennessee, New Hampshire, and of course, Florida,” Smaw says. “In addition, Florida has established laws to evaluate the political standpoint of professors teaching in public schools. There’s even been placed online a critical race theory teachers and professors list to track and possibly blacklist professors and teachers in the future.”

More from UB: Critical race theory: 3 experts discuss its true role in higher education

Those lists remind Smaw of a time when professors were being grilled by legislators from the House Committee on Un-American Activities during the 1950s “Red Scare.” These days, discussing CRT in a charged political environment is looking eerily similar.

“CRT has been recast by Republican activists as this omnipresent and evil ideology that is both anti-American and anti-White,” says Dr. Deborah Archer, president of the American Civil Liberties Union and tenured professor at New York University. “In truth, this is part of a systemic effort to reverse the racial reckoning that we’ve been experiencing for the past several years, to restore the status quo, to stop the meaningful conversations about racial equality.

“Rather than engage with conversations about structural racism and inequality, we now have a wave of lawmakers around the country seeking to silence individuals, educators and young people and to impose an alternative version of American history, one that erases the legacy and reality of racial inequality. But there is a coalition of national and local organizations of teachers and college professors who are pushing back on First Amendment grounds and the vagueness of these laws.”

How CRT is being taught

They haven’t been silenced at Rollins College. Musgrave and Smaw have created a course, with a very eye-opening title, that seeks to explore American history in a very critical way, just not in the way some might think. They understand the national divide and how important it is to diffuse any biases. So they’ve framed CRT as a “current event” that can’t be overlooked.

The first is to examine all claims seriously and discuss the evidence behind those claims. Students look at why the subject has become so divisive and where bans are happening. Each student selects a state where CRT is being challenged. They very quickly come across items such as Christopher Rufo’s texts opposing CRT and determine whether there is evidence to support his claims. (Students last semester did not find any.) The second is to take a deeper dive by leaning on several prominent authors such as Derrick Bell and Kimberlee Crenshaw to see how their writings mesh with the current environment. The third is to explore the supposed divisiveness of CRT. They study “precursors” such as the works of W.E.B DuBois, Ida Wells and James Baldwin to examine a “rich black intellectual history that is certainly not foreign to the country.”

After going through the steps and then doing a re-examination, they were all struck by something related to the push to ban CRT.

“They were saddened because they realized that some of the bits of legislation that have passed in different state houses are really shutting down the educational experience that they themselves fought for at the college level,” Musgrave says. “When they’re seeing books being banned from the curriculum, they’re aware that it’s going to be all that harder to gain that background.”

Colleges and universities looking to explore critical race theory on campuses can have speaker series on campus with authors, journalists, state legislators and historians. Archer says faculty members also can lean on a number of texts, including Richard Delgado’s “Critical Race Theory: The Cutting Edge”, Bell’s Race, Racism and American Law and Crenshaw’s “Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings That Formed the Movement”.

But Smaw says any discussion of CRT with younger students should start with the basics: the creation of the United States, the U.S. Constitution, civil rights and Jim Crow.

“It’s best at the undergraduate level to start by teaching history,” he says. “And then I give them critical race theory readings that are specifically about the sections of the Constitution that I’ve covered. It’s more digestible to them. Students don’t know much about American history and they know even less about the world. It’s going to be difficult to teach a critical race theory course, which requires students to be able to evaluate the institutions under which they live if they don’t know much about those institutions. Then I leave the last two weeks of the course open for general discussions so that I can help them work through some of the things that they might be struggling with.” He also adds, “I let them know that just because I’m teaching you this, doesn’t mean you have to accept any of this.”

The post What is really being taught in a course on critical race theory? appeared first on University Business.