The University of Chicago's Rockefeller Chapel
In 2015, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) started a campaign to get all higher education institutions to adopt the Chicago Statement on free expression. A Sun columnist asked Cornell to endorse it. Cornell alumni are now pressing Cornell to endorse it during the free expression theme year. Would that involve any change in Cornell’s existing policies?
The statement was a report produced by the Committee on Freedom of Expression at the University of Chicago (U of C) in 2015. The report starts off with a lot of U of C-specific history, and no other school has adopted the report verbatim, although FIRE has compiled a list of 99 institutions that have endorsed it in some form. Cornell is not yet on that list, but should it be?
What is the Chicago Statement?
The Chicago Statement makes the following key points:
- All members of the community have the freedom “to discuss any problem that presents itself.” (This is not just a faculty right, and there are no “taboo topics”).
- The college does not shield individuals from ideas and opinions they find unwelcome, disagreeable, or even deeply offensive.
- The obligation to maintain civility on campus can never be used as an excuse to shut off discussion of offensive views.
- A school can prohibit speech “that violates the law, that falsely defames a specific individual, that constitutes a genuine threat or harassment, that unjustifiably invades substantial privacy or confidentiality interests, or that is otherwise directly incompatible with the functioning of” the school.
- Fostering the ability of members of the college community to engage in such debate and deliberation in an effective and responsible manner is an essential part of the college’s educational mission.
Other than the aforementioned narrow legal exceptions to free expression, the Chicago Statement does not have any other exceptions and would prevail if the University of Chicago has a conflicting policy.
Cornell’s Policies
In 2019, following a broad-based community outreach, Cornell’s Board of Trustees adopted a Mission Statement and Core Values. The Mission Statement includes the university’s obligation “to promote a culture of broad inquiry throughout and beyond the Cornell community.” One of the six core values is “Free and Open Inquiry and Expression.” The Core Values statement elaborates:
We are a community whose very purpose is the pursuit of knowledge. We value free and open inquiry and expression—tenets that underlie academic freedom—even of ideas some may consider wrong or offensive. Inherent in this commitment is the corollary freedom to engage in reasoned opposition to messages to which one objects.
Cornell’s statement on Core Values
In the grand scheme, Cornell’s Core Values provide roughly the same coverage as the Chicago Statement–even defending “wrong or offensive” ideas. However, the Core Values discuss free expression on an equal plane with other ideals like “Belonging” and “Respect for the Natural Environment.” Does that suggest that free speech can be curtailed to promote a sense of belonging or respect for the natural environment?
The University Faculty and the Board of Trustees then adopted a “Policy Statement on Academic Freedom and Freedom of Speech and Expression” on March 19, 2021. As with earlier policies, this policy reaffirmed that the heckler’s veto of other speakers was not allowed:
Responsible enjoyment and exercise of these rights includes respect for the rights of all. Infringement upon the rights of others, including the rights to speak and to be heard, or interference with the peaceful and lawful use and enjoyment of University premises, facilities, and programs, violate this principle.
Cornell’s Policy Statement on Academic Freedom and Freedom of Speech and Expression
However, before the draft could be passed by the Faculty or the Trustees, the University Counsel’s Office added very specific language about certain harassment not being protected. Although the Chicago Statement had a reference to “harassment” as being excluded from protected speech, Cornell’s policy was narrower:
[I]n the context of instruction or research [speech] will not be considered prohibited conduct unless this speech or expression meets the definition of discrimination or protected-status harassment under Cornell policies and procedures, and also meets one or both of the following criteria: a reasonable person in the setting would find it to be abusive or humiliating toward a specific individual or specific individuals, or it persists despite the reasonable objection of the specific individual or individuals targeted by the speech.
Cornell’s Policy Statement on Academic Freedom and Freedom of Speech and Expression
This quote leaves unaddressed speech or expression outside of “instruction or research” at extension meetings, extracurricular meetings, alumni reunions or in the dorms.
Other than the fact that Cornell lists free expression as one of six Core Values, while the Chicago Statement does not say where free expression fits in U of C’s pantheon of values, there is no material difference between the two.
Perhaps the biggest difference between U of C and Cornell is that U of C is proud of its protection of free expression and highlights it in new student orientation, while most Cornell students are not aware of Cornell’s existing free expression policies. Some students advocate for the heckler’s veto and for protection from offensive speech. Hence, Cornell needs to discuss free expression in orientation.
Even after Cornell adopted these policies in 2021, an alumni group is still pressuring Cornell to adopt the Chicago Statement. Given the Cornell community and its Board of Trustees have recently adopted three documents that are substantively the Chicago Statement, why are these alumni upset? Perhaps a neutral third party like FIRE can carefully compare the documents and decide whether or not Cornell deserves a place on its list of colleges that have adopted the Chicago Statement.
