WASHINGTON — In order to prepare students for the complex situations they will face in the world and the workplace, higher education leaders and government officials must resist efforts to restrict free speech on campus and keep colleges as places of “ongoing intellectual challenge,” a university president testified at a Congressional hearing Thursday.
“Every student at a university deserves an education that deeply enriches their capabilities,” University of Chicago President Dr. Robert Zimmer said.
Among other things, Zimmer said students must learn to recognize and evaluate evidence, challenge their own and others’ assumptions, and effectively argue their positions.
“If the education that we provide does not give students the opportunity to acquire these skills and abilities, they will be underprepared to make informed decisions in the complex and uncertain world they will confront upon entering the workplace,” Zimmer said.
Free expression and open discourse are “essential” for students to acquire such skills, Zimmer said, and high-quality research requires “unfettered investigation and a willingness to challenge assumptions, and the free expression that goes with it is essential.”
“To limit free expression is, quite simply, to limit the quality of education and the quality of research,” Zimmer said.
Zimmer made his remarks Thursday during a hearing before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, or the Senate HELP committee. The hearing was meant to explore free speech on college campuses.
