SUNY New Paltz professors support free speech on campus

Dear Editor: On March 2, 2017, some 100 students at Middlebury College prevented a noted but controversial guest speaker from communicating with his audience. Following this event, a collection of Middlebury faculty composed a set of principles (freeinquiryblog. wordpress.com) to guide and support free speech and free inquiry.

The preamble to the Middlebury Principles describes how, “on March 2, 2017, roughly 100 of our 2500 students prevented a controversial visiting speaker, Dr. Charles Murray, from communicating with his audience on the campus of Middlebury College. Afterwards, a group of unidentified assailants mobbed the speaker, and one of our faculty members was seriously injured.”

To provide a sense of the document, the first few principles are as follows:

• Genuine higher learning is possible only where free, reasoned and civil speech and discussion are respected.

• Only through the contest of clashing viewpoints do we have any hope of replacing mere opinion with knowledge.

• The incivility and coarseness that characterize so much of American politics and culture cannot justify a response of incivility and coarseness on the college campus.

In response to the events of Middlebury, we, The Free Speech Task Force at SUNY New Paltz, requested that any faculty member who wished to do so could sign his or her name to this statement:

We, the undersigned faculty and staff of the State University of New York at New Paltz, fully support the principles regarding academic freedom that were published by a collection of the Middlebury College faculty on March 6, 2017, in a post titled “Freedom of Speech on Campus: A Statement of Principles by a Collection of Middlebury College Professors.”

This request garnered 61 signatories from the SUNY New Paltz faculty and staff. The Middlebury Principles generated, via email discussion, considerable dialogue among the New Paltz faculty. The Free Speech Task Force appreciates such ideological diversity in our community. With this in mind, we are planning a conference on the issue of freedom of expression that will continue the conversation on this important topic.

The statement, along with the list of signatories, can be found at bit.ly/2otOCBl The Free Speech Task Force, SUNY New Paltz

New Paltz, N.Y.

Lew Brownstein, Emeritus, Political Science Glenn Geher, Psychology Eugene Heath, Philosophy Daniel Lipson, Political Science Lisa Phillips, Digital Media and Journalism Pat Sullivan, Honors