Free Speech and Intellectual Diversity in Higher Education

Eighteen essays reflect diverse perspectives on the meaning of and policy about free speech and intellectual diversity at universities: whether the First Amendment applies on campus, what principles underlie free speech, does free speech matter without a diversity of intellectual perspectives, does free speech promote or inhibit inclusiveness?

The essays in Free Speech and Intellectual Diversity in Higher Education reflect diverse perspectives on one of the most pressing issues in higher education--the controversies over freedom of speech and its relation to intellectual diversity. Does the First Amendment apply on campuses and do its principles clarify or obscure the issues surrounding campus speech? What, after all, is the basis for those principles, and how do they relate to the purposes of the university? Is free speech truly effective without a diversity of perspectives, and to what extent is such diversity found at universities today? Does free speech discourage the inclusion of minorities or previously excluded groups? Are there specific policies that can address the issue of free speech on campuses today in ways that are fair to all parties and to the interests at stake?

Part I: The Concept of Free Speech in Law and Higher Education

Chapter 1: The Classic First Amendment Tradition Under Stress: Freedom of Speech and the University by Robert C. Post

Chapter 2: Free Speech on Campus: A Challenge of Our Times by Geoffrey R. Stone

Chapter 3: From Skokie to Charlottesville: Free Speech, Moral Leadership, and the Line between Tolerating and Condoning Speech by Ulrich Baer

Chapter 4: The First Amendment and Academic Freedom: Principles, Law, and Politics by Donald Alexander Downs

Part II: Free Inquiry on Campus: Philosophy

Chapter 5: The Value of Free Speech by Harvey C. Mansfield

Chapter 6: What Is Free Speech For? By Daniel Cullen

Chapter 7: Free Speech and Liberal Education by Norma Thompson

Chapter 8: Was John Stuart Mill Right about Freedom of Speech? By James R. Stoner, Jr.

Part III: Free Inquiry on Campus: The Current Landscape

Chapter 9: The Age of Outrage: What the Current Political Climate Is Doing to Our Country and Our Universities by Jonathan Haidt

Chapter 10: The Intellectual Suicide of American Universities: Causes and Remedies by Steven F. Hayward

Chapter 11: The High Price of Political Homogeneity by Joshua M. Dunn

Chapter 12: Teaching Controversial Topics Such as Evolutionary Theory: Tips and Tools by Cristine H. Legare and David M. Buss

Chapter 13: Space, Speech, and Subordination on College Campus by Laura Beth Nielsen

Chapter 14: Hiding behind Hate Speech by Heather MacDonald

Part IV: What Is to Be Done?

Chapter 15: A Free Speech Roadmap: How Universities Can Navigate the Current Campus Debates over Controversial Expression by Azhar Majeed

Chapter 16: Campus Free Speech, Hostage to Hecklers—Again by James M. Manley

Chapter 17: Statutory Protections for Public University Student Speech by Eugene Volokh

Chapter 18: Legislative Remedies for Violations of Campus Free Speech: The View from 30,000 Feet by Larry Alexander