Free Speech Resources

Please check out these sources to better understand our goals:

This report is the product of a 1967 faculty committee formed at the University of Chicago. The committee’s purpose was to create a report regarding the school’s “role in political and social action.” This report focuses on the importance of institutional neutrality in preserving academic freedom for both faculty and students.

The “Chicago Statement” is a model free speech policy statement that many universities have adopted, affirming their commitment to free expression. Read it in its entirety. 

Synopsis of the Chicago statement courtesy of  the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. 

In an era of campus chaos, William Galston makes a powerful case for saving higher education—by returning to the University of Chicago’s bold, forgotten credo.

The principles of freedom of speech have a special place in the world of the university. How institutions enact them has itself been a subject of debate.

FIRE, in partnership with New York University’s First Amendment Watch, developed a series of free-to-use modules, videos, and other resources for colleges and universities to use when teaching incoming students about their free speech rights and the principles behind the First Amendment. 

April 2023 statement from the Columbia Academic Freedom Council, a group of faculty and research officers, which offers a principled defense of academic freedom at Columbia. It calls for protection of open inquiry, even when ideas provoke, and reaffirms the faculty’s role in sustaining rigorous, pluralistic debate. A timely stand from within the university itself.

The report of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Free Expression recommended that the following MIT Statement on Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom be considered and adopted by the MIT Faculty.

In 2022, DePauw adopted  this statement modeled on the “Chicago Statement,” the gold standard for institutional policy statements on freedom of expression. Read the full statement.