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Hearing Hearing Date: May 22, 2018 2:00 pm 2154 Rayburn HOB

Challenges to the Freedom of Speech on College Campuses: Part II

Subject
Challenges to the Freedom of Speech on College Campuses: Part II
Date
May 22, 2018
Time
2:00 pm
Place
2154 Rayburn HOB
PURPOSE:
  • To further explore the current state of free speech protections on college campuses and examine first-hand accounts from the perspectives of those at the forefront of the debate.
  • To understand the policies and viewpoints that have enabled suppression of constitutionally protected free speech at institutions of higher education.

BACKGROUND:

  • On July 27, 2017, the Subcommittee on Healthcare, Benefits, and Administrative Rules and the Subcommittee on Intergovernmental Affairs held a joint hearing highlighting challenges to free speech on college campuses.
  • Overall, suppression of free speech on college campuses appears to be worsening. In some situations, states and public universities have responded to free speech violations by enacting policies to eliminate the counterintuitive free-speech zones, in addition to disciplining disruptive students.
  • In September 2017, the U.S. Attorney General expressed concern that freedom of thought and speech are “under attack” on campuses and called for a “national recommitment” to campus free speech cases.
Witnesses and testimonies: Mr. Tyson Langhofer

Senior Counsel and Director, Center for Academic Freedom
Alliance Defending Freedom

Document

Dr. Bret Weinstein

Professor In-Exile
Evergreen State College, Washington

Document

Dr. Allison Stanger

Russell J. Leng '60 Professor of International Politics and Economics
Middlebury College, Vermont

Document

Dr. Shaun Harper

Provost Professor of Education and Business, Allen Chair in Urban Leadership, USC Race and Equity Center Executive Director
University of Southern California

Document

Dr. Robert P. George

McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions
Princeton University

Document