Now and again you come across a statement that is so important that it demands attention and celebration. \u00a0One such is the report on freedom of expression by the University of Chicago. \u00a0This is the background.<\/p>\n
The Committee on Freedom of Expression at the University of Chicago was appointed in July 2014 by President Robert J. Zimmer and Provost Eric D. Isaacs \u201cin light of recent events nationwide that have tested institutional commitments to free and open discourse.\u201d The Committee\u2019s charge was to draft a statement articulating the University\u2019s overarching commitment to free, robust, and uninhibited debate and deliberation among all members of the University\u2019s community. \u00a0The Committee has carefully reviewed the University\u2019s history, examined events at other institutions, and consulted a broad range of individuals both inside and outside the University. This statement reflects the long-standing and distinctive values of the University of Chicago and affirms the importance of maintaining and, indeed, celebrating those values for the future.\"<\/p>\n
This is how it begins:<\/p>\n
\"From its very founding, the University of Chicago has dedicated itself to the preservation and celebration of the freedom of expression as an essential element of the University\u2019s culture. \u00a0In 1902, in his address marking the University\u2019s decennial, President William Rainey Harper declared that \u201cthe principle of complete freedom of speech on all subjects has from the beginning been regarded as fundamental in the University of Chicago\u201d and that \u201cthis principle can neither now nor at any future time be called in question.\u201d \u00a0Thirty years later, a student organization invited William Z. Foster, the Communist Party\u2019s candidate for President, to lecture on campus. \u00a0This triggered a storm of protest from critics both on and off campus. \u00a0To those who condemned the University for allowing the event, President Robert M. Hutchins responded that \u201cour students . . . should have freedom to discuss any problem that presents itself.\u201d He insisted that the \u201ccure\u201d for ideas we oppose \u201clies through open discussion rather than through inhibition.\u201d On a later occasion, Hutchins added that \u201cfree inquiry is indispensable to the good life, that universities exist for the sake of such inquiry, [and] that without it they cease to be universities. \u00a0...\u201d<\/p>\n
And this is how it ends\"<\/p>\n
\"As a corollary to the University\u2019s commitment to protect and promote free expression, members of the University community must also act in conformity with the principle of free expression. Although members of the University community are free to criticize and contest the views expressed on campus, and to criticize and contestspeakers who are invited to express their views on campus, they may not obstruct or otherwise interfere with the freedom of others to express views they reject or even loathe. To this end, the University has a solemn responsibility not only to promote a lively and fearless freedom of debate and deliberation, but also to protect that freedom when others attempt to restrict it. \u00a0As Robert M. Hutchins observed, without a vibrant commitment to free and open inquiry, a university ceases to be a university. The University of Chicago\u2019s long-standing commitment to this principle lies at the very core of our University\u2019s greatness. That is our inheritance, and it is our promise to the future.\"<\/p>\n