US universities launch partnership to elevate free speech to counter threats to democracy

abcnews.go.com:

The presidents of 13 universities are elevating free speech on their campuses this academic year, as part of a new nonprofit initiative announced Tuesday

The presidents of a wide-ranging group of 13 universities are elevating free speech on their campuses this academic year, as part of a new nonprofit initiative announced Tuesday to combat what organizers call dire threats to U.S. democracy.

The Campus Call for Free Expression will take different forms on different campuses. The campaign, created by The Institute for Citizens & Scholars with funding from the Knight Foundation is designed to cultivate the freedom of expression on campuses and help students work together to find solutions to complicated, divisive problems.

“The national context of the deep political polarization, the inability of people to speak across difference in constructive and civil ways, it seems to me that colleges and universities need to be the institutions at the forefront of showing a better way to do that,” said Jonathan Alger, president of James Madison University, which is participating in the initiative.

The Institute for Citizens & Scholars first convened a group of college presidents in March 2022 to discuss how to prepare students to actively participate in democracy. Eventually, the presidents and schools committed to five principles of free expression along with new, on-campus programs that each school designed themselves. Those include new training at freshman orientations, faculty seminars and convocation remarks.

While not new, controversies around free speech at universities abound, from students protesting invited speakers to state legislatures targeting faculty tenure, and also reflect an increase in restrictions on freedom of