UNC Alumni Free Speech Alliance reflects broader trend of campus alumni engagement
The UNC Alumni Free Speech Alliance is an independent, nonpartisan organization founded in 2021 to combat campus “unrest” related to free speech, according to its website. The alumni-led organization is known for hosting events on campus featuring guest speakers discussing free speech issues and partnering with similar groups, including the Student Free Speech Alliance at […]
Americans Overwhelmingly Agree On What Universities Should Focus On
From congressional hearings to donor revolts to headlines about campus protests, American universities are being told—loudly—that they’ve lost the public’s trust. But beneath the noise, there’s a quieter question that rarely gets asked: when Americans criticize universities, what do they actually want them to do instead? A new study published in Science Advances by economists […]
Virginia’s New Governor Moves Swiftly to Overhaul State University Boards
Gov. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia lost no time on Saturday in altering the tenor of the board that controls the University of Virginia, appointing 10 new members to the 17-member body within hours of being inaugurated. She also acted to revamp the boards of two other state schools. The day before, she had asked five […]
UVA’s President Was Right to Resign
The University of Virginia drew national headlines last summer when its then-president, Jim Ryan, resigned in the face of a Department of Justice investigation into a potential pattern of civil-rights violations by the university. More recently, Ryan and others have accused the UVA board of conspiring to push him out. It’s amusing that Ryan would […]
NYT Podcast: The Lonely Work of a Free-Speech Defender
Over the past year, the federal government has taken a series of actions widely seen as attacks on the First Amendment. Greg Lukianoff, the head of a legal defense group called the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, speaks to Natalie Kitroeff about what free speech really means and why both the left and the […]
‘Extortion Dressed Up In The Language of Contracts’: Cornell Professors Weigh In On Settlement
Following a freeze of over $250 million from the federal government, the University announced its settlement — a legally binding agreement that ended the freeze and resulted in the dismissal of any pending civil rights investigations — with the Trump administration on Nov. 7. The settlement restored all funding for grants that were paused and […]
The Disturbing Politicization of UVA’s Faculty Senate
Inside Higher Ed, an online publisher of news and opinion in the higher education sphere, recently published an article entitled, “The Angry 8: On Faculty Senates.” The thrust of the story is that the faculty senates at many colleges and universities have been hijacked by a relatively small number of activists who have turned the […]
Campus Leaders Can’t Avoid Viewpoint Diversity in Pursuit of Open Inquiry
The 2025-6 academic year opened with college presidents across the country affirming their commitment to building cultures of open inquiry on their campuses. To restore public trust in universities, many of these leaders declared that they planned to embark on internal reforms, effectively bringing their campus cultures more in line with the ideals of knowledge-seeking […]
Furman: John Tomasi on the Future of Free Speech
This month, we bring you an exclusive interview with John Tomasi, President of Heterodox Academy, one of the major non-partisan organizations helping colleges like Furman become places where “intellectual curiosity thrives.” He visited Furman during homecoming and sees a bright future for our school. He believes that his organization can help the university continue to […]
College Cancel Culture Is Getting Worse
It has been another brutal year for academic freedom. Colleges and universities have become entangled in political agendas; donors and trustees have used funding as a cudgel; and the Trump administration has withheld federal money to demand ideological compliance. America’s once-revered institutions have succumbed to intimidation, eroding the public’s confidence that they could uphold their […]
