Free Speech, Universities, and the Development of Civic Discourse

Abstract

This paper will explore the multifaceted nature of the controversies around campus speech and academic freedom and what should be the appropriate university response to those issues. Where there is widespread agreement is that there is currently a lack of civil discourse around political, scientific, social, and religious ideas in our country. The level of vitriol has grown, and name-calling is the norm in the public space, whether real or virtual. College campuses are not immune to the political climate and tone of the country. Concerns about free expression and responses to unpopular ideas at universities point to the larger failure to develop the skills of civil discourse in our students and citizens. The inability to engage in civil discourse is a dangerous threat to advancing knowledge and for assuring a robust deliberative democracy. Colleges and universities should be places where controversial ideas, even noxious ideas, can expressed and challenged, and students need to be part of that process. I will argue that colleges and universities should adopt as part of their core mission the development of the skills of civic discourse, which is the foundation of the virtue of civility, a necessary virtue for a deliberative democracy and one that is sorely lacking in current times.