Bearing the cost of free expression
Yes, Milo Yiannopoulos is a vile demagogue. Yes, the student groups inviting him and other right-wing agitators to UC Berkeley sometimes appear willfully incompetent. And, yes, Yiannopoulos and company are trying to provoke outrage and violence from left-wing militants who have been all too willing to oblige, forcing the campus to assume extraordinary security expenses.
None of that, however, alters a public university’s duty to tolerate even regrettable expression. University leaders deserve credit for making that clear in recent weeks and taking pains to accommodate controversial speakers, resisting a chorus of misguided doubts about the value of unfettered speech and Berkeley’s obligation to welcome it.
Yiannopoulos and fellow bigoted blowhard Ann Coulter, whom Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ aptly described as “deeply trivial people,” may be on campus next week — or may not, judging by past cancellations — along with a highly speculative list of other potential guests that includes President Trump’s ousted consigliere, Steve Bannon, for what they’re calling Free Speech Week. The recently appointed chancellor wisely responded by declaring a Free Speech Year and urging the campus to “respond to hate speech with more speech.” As she told The Chronicle’s editorial board Thursday, “The price of free speech is the protection of abhorrent and odious speech.”
UC President Janet Napolitano has likewise noted that the system has to “defend the rights of provocateurs to share their objectionable thoughts” and will help Berkeley cover security costs.
Not that the campus community always discerns this responsibility so clearly. In the spring, under Chancellor Nicholas Dirks, Berkeley canceled a Coulter speech before attempting to accommodate it. Last week, more than 100 faculty members and graduate students called for classes to be suspended for most of the week to protect students’ “physical and mental safety.” And Napolitano and Christ have wondered about the limits of campus security expenses.
The costs so far, however, amount to a small fraction of the university’s deficit, let alone its overall budget. Given the will to protect free expression from the violent fringes, UC and the state certainly have the financial and law enforcement resources to do so.
College students are increasingly questioning the value of free speech, as Christ noted. Universities that make the same mistake will only mislead their students further while inflating the stature of trivial agitators.