Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
Brian Leiter, a law school professor here and my partner in crime in finding Kalven Report violations, is touting Kalven’s Principle of institutional neutrality in this new letter from the Chronicles of Higher Education. Click to go to the site, but I’ve reproduced the letter below. As instantiated several times this week, college administrators who … Continue reading Brian Leiter defends the Kalven Report
After Harvard’s President and administration sent out a mealymouthed email to the College on October 8 about the Israel/Gaza situation, they were criticized by more than 350 Harvard faculty for their failure to draw any moral lessons from that war. Gay and the admin were criticized for missing a “teachable moment” by “contribut[ing] to the … Continue reading Harvard’s President is STILL trying to get it right
All over the U.S., colleges and universities are falling over each other to make flaunt the most virtue by posting official statements about politics and ideology, now about Ukraine and, when that settles down, back to statements about ethnicity and politics. All, that is, except the University of Chicago, which is unique in having a … Continue reading University of Chicago’s Kalven Report on free speech featured and defended in Wall Street Journal op-ed
The article below is from the conservative National Review, but of course if you want to find out what’s going on with colleges and universities, especially vis-à-vis free speech and academic freedom, you have to look at right-wing sources. This is not to imply that the Right doesn’t censor or suppress speech, but since most … Continue reading Princeton University violates the Kalven Report (even though it doesn’t have one)
As regular readers here know, since 1967 the University of Chicago has had a policy of institutional neutrality, a policy embodied in our Kalven Report. This report forbids the University from making official pronouncements on any political, ideological, or moral issues, with the few exceptions being those issues that directly affect the workings of the … Continue reading Four Northwestern University profs endorse adoption of Kalven Principle
At the University of Chicago we have a policy, based on the 1967 Kalven Report, that prohibits official units of the university from making moral, political, or ideological statements—unless those statements are about issues that directly affect the mission of the University. This includes university departments. The purpose is to promote freedom of speech by … Continue reading On University administrators and departments making political, ideological, or moral statements
Readers must know by now that while I’m sympathetic to Israel in the current conflict, I wouldn’t let those sympathies weaken my hard-line support for freedom of speech. So when universities rushed to condemn Hamas in official statements, I didn’t really approve. Universities shouldn’t be in the business of making official statements about politics, ideology, … Continue reading Four Israeli geneticists unwisely urge universities to issue official condemnations of terrorism and antisemitism
As I’ve written several times, one of the foundational principles of the University of Chicago—institutional neutrality on political or ideological issues—is embodied in the Kalven Report of 1967. The report, which has become a stated policy of the University, is that no unit of our University, be it the administration, departments, or official units, can … Continue reading A plea for “institutional neutrality” from Princeton
