Professor Stanley Fish published his article, “Free Speech Is Not an Academic Value” in The Chronicle of Higher Education, March 20, 2017. Like everyone else these days, I’ve been reading and thinking about what’s happening on campuses when invited speakers are shouted down by student protesters. And my mind keeps drifting back to a statement of principles issued last March by a faculty committee at the University of Minnesota. Principle No. 1 reads: “A public university must be absolutely committed to protecting free speech, both for constitutional and academic reasons.” This statement is at best insufficiently nuanced and at worst false.
Full article can be accessed here.