In 2002, Judge Bray was chosen to take the helm of the Portsmouth, Virginia-based Beazley Foundation, Inc., where his love for mankind and his reverence for excellence in higher education were demonstrated in profound ways. It was in his striving for the highest academic standards that his work intersected with ACTA, and we had the tremendous, good fortune to partner with him to strengthen higher education. 

Under Judge Bray’s leadership, the Beazley Foundation commissioned a report from ACTA in 2012, entitled The Diffusion of Light and Education, which assessed the core curricula, tuition costs, retention and graduation rates, and governance at 39 public and private institutions in Virginia. ACTA’s ultimate findings so disturbed Judge Bray and the foundation’s trustees that they “voted to suspend further grants to undergraduate liberal arts higher education in the Commonwealth until the Board fashions measures of educational effectiveness necessary to properly assess an institution’s academic program and related issues. A more enlightened funding model will promote recognition of performance as well as need and doubtless impact the direction and amount of Foundation assistance.” 

This bold action changed expectations for higher education in the Commonwealth. It was instrumental, for example, in Regent University’s rise to an “A” school and Christopher Newport University’s rise to an “A+” school in ACTA’s college ratings tool, What Will They Learn?^®. I had the pleasure of traveling with Judge Bray to a number of colleges and universities, urging their leadership to take up curricular reforms and enthusiastically celebrating their success when they did. Those were some of the most inspiring moments of my work at ACTA. I treasure the memory of Judge Bray’s penetrating logic and the dignity with which he spoke in every meeting we attended. I also cherish the memory of the irrepressible, warm humor with which he discussed both our strategy and the human condition in general during our personal conversations.

I do not think it possible for anyone to have been with him for long without perceiving the depth of his faith, his love for his family, his patriotism, and his desire to do something small or large each day to make a better world. He left the world far too soon, but the time he gave us was full of blessings. Rest in peace and honor, dear friend. Thank you for your light.

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As he was dying, Thomas Jefferson requested that three of his achievements be carved into his gravestone: writing the Declaration of Independence, drafting the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and founding the University of Virginia (UVA). President Jefferson was an indispensable statesman and leader of the new American nation from the 1770s through the conclusion of his presidency in 1809, serving as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress, Minister in France, the first U.S. secretary of state, and the country’s third president. In contrast with his at-times foe, later-friend John Adams, Jefferson was optimistic about what the new designs and principles of the United States could accomplish. According to Brown University Professor of History Emeritus Gordon Wood, “[Jefferson] believed that the world was getting better, becoming freer and more democratic, and that the new republic of the United States had a special role to play in fulfilling that future. . . . Despising monarchy, he became a true believer in the republican revolutions that he hoped would spread everywhere in the world.”

Although President Jefferson thought that excessive taxation and government spending threatened liberty, he made an exception for primary and secondary education. He firmly believed that education was a moral necessity for human flourishing and a direct means for bettering society. To that end, after his presidency, he set about establishing in his home state an “academical village,” a place for learning “so broad & liberal & modern, as to be worth patronising with the public support, and be a temptation to the youth of other states to come, and drink of the cup of knowledge & fraternize with us.” Thus, the University of Virginia was born on January 25, 1819. Jefferson’s advocacy for liberal republicanism and detestation for monarchs infused the early culture of self-government at UVa; in fact, the school did not hire its first president until 1905.

In recent years, some have called for the removal of Thomas Jefferson’s statue on campus, citing his ownership of over 600 slaves. Addressing the controversy, current UVA President Jim Ryan said in 2018, “As long as I am president, the University of Virginia will not walk away from Thomas Jefferson.” UVA Rector Whittington Clement recently remarked, “We are a University founded by Thomas Jefferson, and honoring his legacy and his contributions to our nation has, and will always be, an indelible part of what it means to live, learn and work here.”

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Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr., has had a wide-ranging career: political adviser, corporate executive, head of a federal agency, governor, and most recently, university president. As he was completing his second term as the governor of Indiana (and after opting against a presidential run in 2012), his interests turned to Purdue University’s then-vacant presidency. He became president of the STEM-focused university on January 14, 2013, and quickly began setting his policy goals in motion, aided by his political skills and past experience balancing budgets. He froze undergraduate tuition for seven consecutive years; spearheaded partnerships with several engineering corporations to promote research and job opportunities for Purdue graduates; and helped created Purdue Polytechnic High School, a STEM preparatory charter school in Indianapolis. His insistence on a civic literacy requirement for all undergraduates evidenced his commitment to intellectual rigor.

President Daniels also led to the way towards strengthening the university’s commitment to free expression and academic freedom. With his support, Purdue’s board of trustees adopted the Chicago Principles on Freedom of Expression in May 2015, signaling the university’s “solemn responsibility not only to promote a lively and fearless freedom of debate and deliberation, but also to protect that freedom when others attempt to restrict it.” In a 2017 interview with the George W. Bush President Center, President Daniels noted he was “very proud” that both the undergraduate and graduate student governments had recently passed free speech resolutions. He put the Chicago Principles into action by establishing a freshman orientation unit on free expression, which includes training on the First Amendment and live skits, wherein students learn how to navigate various dilemmas involving free speech.

Governor Daniels stepped down as president in 2022 and now serves as chairman of the board of the Purdue Research Foundation, having overseen the university’s ascent to the fourth best engineering school in the nation (and first in the Midwest), according to U.S. News & World Report. In 2023, the university honored its former president by naming their reimagined business school after him. President Daniels’s “strong leadership and vision” left Purdue University significantly better than he found it.

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On December 23, 2022, the Virginia Council of Presidents, a group of 39 college and university presidents in the state, released a statement affirming free speech. The first lines of the statement read, “As presidents of Virginia’s public colleges and universities, we unequivocally support free expression and viewpoint diversity on our campuses. Free expression is the fundamental basis for both academic freedom and for effective teaching and learning inside and outside the classroom.”

This was a welcome development. Despite producing two of America’s fiercest defenders of free speech, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson (the latter of whom founded the University of Virginia in 1819), Virginia’s higher education institutions do not always live up to their duty to protect constitutional freedoms. In April 2023, students disrupted a pro-life speaker at Virginia Commonwealth University, and two protesters were arrested on charges of simple assault and disorderly conduct. In the days before Mike Pence was scheduled to speak at the University of Virginia, posters advertising the speech were ripped down, and the editor of the university’s student newspaper chastised university leadership for allowing the event to proceed in an article titled, “Dangerous rhetoric is not entitled to a platform.”        

With its free speech statement, the members of the Virginia Council of Presidents recognized the serious free expression challenges afflicting Virginia’s campuses. In an article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch announcing the new statement, higher education leaders Jonathan Alger, Shannon Kennedy, Katherine Rowe, and Timothy Sands wrote, “Our 39 public institutions are committed to action. Students, faculty and staff will see a renewed focus on participatory citizenship, free expression and the purposeful inclusion of disparate viewpoints.”

The state of Virginia has made admirable efforts to uphold free expression in public education. On November 28, 2023, Governor Glenn Youngkin addressed an assembly of higher education leaders, exhorting them to improve the climate for free speech on campus. And at ACTA’s 2023 Alumni Summit on Free Expression, Virginia Secretary of Education Aimee Rogstad Guidera encouraged alumni to advocate for free expression and intellectual diversity on campus.

It is up to university leadership to make the spirit of the free speech statement a reality by implementing policies and practices that protect the First Amendment and foster open inquiry.

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The University of Texas (UT) System is one of the nation’s largest university systems, boasting eight campuses and 240,000 full-time students. On November 17, 2022, the UT regents approved the University of Texas Commitment to Freedom of Speech and Expression. The statement, which was modeled on the Chicago Principles on Freedom of Expression, “guarantees all members of the UT System the broadest possible latitude to speak, write, listen, challenge, and learn.” It continues, “The UT System and the UT institution fully respect and support the freedom of all members of the UT System community ‘to discuss any problem that presents itself.’” 
 
System Board Chairman Kevin Eltife said the adoption of the statement “underscores The University of Texas System’s long-standing commitment to freedom of speech and expression on our campuses in a manner that promotes open inquiry, provides transparency and upholds the rule of law. We will always value and embrace the debate of competing ideas and principles.”

The system’s decision followed a 2018 lawsuit brought by Speech First against UT–Austin’s Campus Climate Response Team. The lawsuit claimed that the bias response team and several other campus policies violated students’ constitutionally protected free speech rights. After years of litigation, the parties agreed to a settlement, and the UT–Austin student government petitioned the UT System to adopt the Chicago Principles.

In adopting the Commitment to Freedom of Speech and Expression, the UT System sent a clear message to universities across the state and nation that the free expression of ideas is fundamental to the mission of higher education. But this is just a first step. UT leadership must ensure that the spirit of the statement is rigorously promoted in classrooms, lecture halls, and dormitories so that students and faculty are free to encounter challenging ideas and debate current issues in a spirit of openness and respect, unafraid of censure or sanction.

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Conservative political commentator Ann Coulter was invited by Cornell University’s chapter of the Network of Enlightened Women to speak on November 9, 2022. Just minutes into her speech, students began a coordinated protest, using “whoopie cushions, screaming, and loud circus music” to drown out Ms. Coulter. Students chanted, “Your words are violence!” and “We don’t want your ideas here! Leave! Leave!” Ms. Coulter was soon escorted out by security for her protection. In a statement given to ACTA, Ms. Coulter criticized the “tepid” actions of administrators and lamented that Cornell students were allowed to “waste everyone’s time and money, and make a joke of free speech at this allegedly world-class university.”

This was not Ms. Coulter’s first brush with a university cancelation. The College Republicans at the University of California–Berkeley invited her to speak in April 2017. The Berkeley administration asked the College Republicans to postpone the event until the next week, saying it had received threats against Ms. Coulter and could not provide adequate security. The club rejected that proposal because it would move the event to “dead week.” Ms. Coulter ultimately had to cancel her Berkeley trip.

Most university professors lean left, and Cornell is a politically progressive community. Had she been allowed to finish her presentation, Ms. Coulter would have brought a point of view that is rarely expressed on campus. The question-and-answer session she planned to hold would have given students who disagreed with her an appropriate opportunity to challenge her views and have their own opinions challenged as well. Instead, the many students who came to the event in good faith were unable to hear new perspectives and engage in the reasoned debate that is the foundation of intellectual progress and mutual understanding.

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In September 2021, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences disinvited University of Chicago Associate Professor of Geophysics Dorian Abbot from delivering the prestigious John Carlson Lecture on October 21 of that year. Dr. Abbot cowrote a Newsweek op-ed that proposed prioritizing merit, fairness, and equality in college admissions over diversity, equity, and inclusion. Soon after the piece was published, a Twitter mob branded Professor Abbot as a racist and urged MIT to rescind its invitation.

The MIT administration made the wrong call here. Dr. Abbot was invited on the basis of his novel theories about the climates of exoplanets, which fulfilled the John Carlson Lecture’s aim to communicate “exciting new results in climate science to the general public.” His opinions about college admissions were fully protected by academic freedom and had no bearing on his qualifications to deliver the lecture.

MIT’s loss became Princeton’s gain. Robert George, director of Princeton’s James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, jumped at the chance to host Professor Abbot’s presentation on October 21, 2021, calling MIT’s decision “chilling to academic freedom and free speech.” Many students from outside geophysics and planetary sciences attended the lecture, eager to hear from a professor whose views are considered out of bounds at America’s leading university for science, mathematics, and engineering.

When Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences disinvited Dorian Abbot, Princeton’s Robert George jumped at the chance to host Professor Abbot’s presentation on October 21, 2021, calling MIT’s decision “chilling to academic freedom and free speech.”

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John P. McWhorter was the recipient of ACTA’s Philip Merrill Award for Outstanding Contributions to Liberal Arts Education on this date in 2022 because of his extensive scholarly work as a linguist at Columbia University professor and his trenchant social and political commentary. A regular columnist for The New York Times, John McWhorter also has written a best-selling book, Woke Racism, in which he outlined his perspective on the damaging nature of the current anti-racism rubric and its negative impact on higher education and the broader social fabric of America. He appears regularly on The Glenn Show podcast, hosted by Glenn Loury, who was one of professor McWhorter’s tribute speakers at the gala ceremony. John McWhorter’s prodigious contributions to the liberal arts earned him the Merrill Award, which he received on October 21, 2022.

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On March 19, 2019, York College of Pennsylvania Professor Erec Smith critiqued a keynote address delivered related to his discipline, Rhetoric and Composition. He argued that the talk was a kind of performative politics that wouldn’t bring about real change and he challenged the author’s claim that teaching standardized English to students of color is an act of white supremacy. While the response was swift and isolating, Professor Smith did not back down. Instead, he refocused his efforts, writing his book A Critique of Anti-Racism in Rhetoric and Composition: The Semblance of Empowerment which dissects the over-reliance of anti-racist initiatives on identity politics and victimization and offers instead an alternative path based on empowerment theory. He continues to support free expression and intellectual diversity through his work and writing. He is also one of the co-founders of Free Black Thought, a website and journal dedicated to spotlighting viewpoint diversity among black intellectuals. Listen to his remarks upon acceptance of Hero of Intellectual Freedom Award, Turning Haters into Motivators here.

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