Heard at Cornell is a column that regularly quotes important statements made by Cornellians. This excerpt is taken from the Comments of the Concerned Alumni, authored by Robert Platt Esq. ’73, JD ’76 and Elias Lehrer, ’98. Mr. Platt is a former trustee. The statement was posted to the comment section of UA Resolution 7: Right to Protest, which is scheduled for consideration today.
The most valuable skill students can learn at Cornell is to think for themselves and for each individual to make their own reasoned judgments on the ideas presented by others. Freedom of expression is designed to protect that – nobody can tell Cornellians what they must think.
Resolution #7 resolves, “the University Assembly wholeheartedly supports efforts to ensure accountability across the Cornell community for speech that violates our values and our Code of Conduct;” (lines 74-76). So, it is saying that if a listener thinks that what a speaker is saying somehow “violates our values,” the listener must hold the speaker accountable for his or her “words.” That implies that there is an enforceable orthodoxy at Cornell. There is not and never has been. The idea of a such orthodoxy, indeed, is contrary to the very ideal of any university and certainly contrary to the ethos of a university promising “any study.”
Robert Platt and Elias Lehrer
