On Monday, October 23, John Tomasi, President of Heterodox Academy spoke regarding the question “When Cornell Speaks, What Should It Say?” The audience was mostly faculty members, and the talk was co-sponsored by the Cornell Chapter of the Heterodox Academy and the Arts & Sciences Program on Freedom and Free Societies.
Prior to becoming the full time head of Heterodox Academy, Tomasi was the Romeo Elton Professor of Natural Philosophy in the Political Science and Philosophy departments of Brown University. Heterodox Academy is a national organization with local campus chapters to defend free expression and academic freedom. It “advance[s] the principles of open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and constructive disagreement to improve higher education and academic research.”
A campus divided
Tomasi noted the dilemma Cornell faces when issuing public statements related to the Hamas-Gaza situation, and offers institutional neutrality as an important tool to handle this problem. Institutional neutrality is best summarized by the 1967 Kalven Report adopted by the University of Chicago.
Its key principle is “a heavy presumption against the university taking collective action or expressing opinions on the political and social issues of the day, or modifying its corporate activities to foster social or political values, however compelling and appealing they may be.”
This is because, “The university is the home and sponsor of critics; it is not itself the critic.”
The Kalven Report has been endorsed by the University of North Carolina, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression and the Heterodox Academy. In August 2022, the Cornell Review urged Cornell to adopt it, and a group of alumni proposed it to the University Assembly in spring 2023, but Dean of the Faculty Eve DeRosa spoke against it, dismissing it as “an external document.”
As the cost of taking public positions goes up, such as the number of large Harvard and Penn donors who withdrew support based on the Hamas-Gaza controversy, a path of institutional neutrality becomes more appealing. Yet, Tomasi raises four important questions surrounding the adoption of the Kalven Report.
First, how do we transition to neutrality? There may be timing issues. Does the university just stop issuing statements or issue a statement setting the ground rules for future statements?
Second, past statements can be divided into “expressions of concern” and “taking a position on an issue.” Some college presidents issued statements in 2016 expressing concern when Trump won the Presidency. If Hillary Clinton had won instead, would it have been equally appropriate to send a comforting statement to Trump supporters?
Third, should the Kalven Report be applied differently at different types of universities – public vs. private? How about Notre Dame vs. Oberlin?
Finally, what does institutional neutrality tell us about the October 7 Hamas attack? Can the university speak on matters of simple fact or “moral fact”? Some university leaders exercise social control on a campus by issuing statements. If senior university leaders do not speak out, who will fill the void? According to the Kalven Report, such moral issues cannot be put up for a campus-wide vote, because everyone is entitled to their own views.
Beyond institutional neutrality
The lively question and answer session raised many more interesting issues. “Reasonable disagreement” is a relevant concept that holds that not every idea is welcomed on campus (e.g., “the Earth is flat”), but instead the campus must be open to all ideas that can be defended with logic or evidence.
Labeling certain topics as “not debatable” does not solve the problem, but makes it worse and results in “cancel culture.”
One questioner asked about the impact of social media, both as used by students as well as Cornell’s institutional accounts. There is more competition regarding “who speaks for the university.”
One questioner asked whether viewpoint diversity should be a serious criteria when hiring faculty. Just prior to the lecture, Tomasi met with Cornell Provost Michael I. Kotlikoff, and they had a discussion about how to bring more viewpoint diversity to Cornell’s faculty.
A video of the lecture is on YouTube.
