Recently, the DePaulia published a letter from concerned DePaul faculty and staff urging the protection of the free speech and academic freedom rights of pro-Palestine protestors (“Stand Up DePaul—an open letter from DePaul faculty and staff”). I strongly agree with the letter’s endorsement of the “free speech” rights and “academic freedom” of the protestors. I also support the letter’s endorsement of AAUP (American Association of University Professors) and First Amendment principles.
But I write separately because I’m concerned that the letter, by also implying alignment between DePaul’s “Vincentian” values and the protests, confuses two different questions: (1) whether we agree with the message of the protests and (2) whether we should support the rights of protestors to speak.
These are wholly unrelated issues that should be kept completely separate.
I strongly disagree with many of the claims advanced in the recent Gaza protests. In my view those protests were often indifferent toward the terrible human rights record of Hamas. Indeed, I found some of the protestors’ speech not just wrong-headed but offensive.
Nonetheless, I believe just as strongly that we should protect protestors’ rights to speak peacefully in public places on campus, subject only to the very narrow limitations recognized in First Amendment doctrine, such as reasonable and content-neutral “time, place, and manner” regulations. Universities, moreover, must do what they can to protect peaceful student protestors from government retaliation.
Why do I believe this? For two reasons, both of which underpin the AAUP principles and the First Amendment. First, when any of us are thrown to the wolves for standing up for our convictions, all of our rights are less secure. Second, in the absence of broad protection for dissent, our intellectual culture will be destroyed by political partisanship, conformity, complacency, and motivated reasoning. If we don’t protect the rights of those with whom we deeply disagree, we stifle the culture of criticism essential to our university’s mission⎯advancing knowledge.
In the future, I hope defenders of speech rights at DePaul keep the eye on the ball. Let’s disagree on the Hamas-Israel war (and much else)⎯and focus on preserving our freedom to continue doing so.
About the author:
Mark Moller is Professor of Law at the College of Law. He is also a member of the DePaul AAUP Chapter Steering Committee and the Faculty Council Academic Freedom Task Force. The views expressed are his alone.
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