WASHINGTON — The American Association of University Professors, with the help of the Newseum Institute, held a symposium where two groups of panelists were asked whether they believe freedom of speech and the press is in a crisis and is being threatened.
John Wilson, co-editor of AAUP’s Academe Blog, summarized the prevailing sentiment at the event, saying, “The fact is free speech has always been in crisis.”
Gene Policinski, chief operating officer at the Newseum, served as the moderator on the first panel of experts comprised of Wilson; Jeffrey Herbst, Newseum CEO and former president of Colgate University; and Catherine Ross, professor of law at George Washington University.
Ross, honing in on freedom of political speech in higher education, said administrators need to allow offensive and hateful speech, even if they don’t agree with it. “The First Amendment protects even intentional hate speech,” she said.
When discussing a teacher’s role in educating students, Ross added, “Whether K-12 or college you cannot tell a court ‘OK, I silenced speech, but I did it to protect someone else from hurt feelings.’”
Wilson went on to say that administrators hold the power of maintaining freedom of speech, not the students. He explained that those with money or power have the ability to — and often do — influence colleges and universities and the speakers or lecturers that school administrators invite to campus.
Wilson then spoke out against the idea that millennials deserve the title ‘snowflakes’ they so often receive on campuses across the nation for fighting hateful speech. “Those darn kids are not destroying free speech in America,” he said.
