Colleges and universities across the country used to be thought of as places of free thought and free speech. (Photo: Students in class/Wikimedia Commons)
However, the news about the state of free speech on college campuses has been depressing over the last several years as ideas have been muzzled and speech literally gagged.
But leave it to an Ivy League school to show other colleges the way, thanks in part to a new book promoting free speech by Princeton University political scientist Keith Whittington and the support and campus-wide promotion of the book by Princeton’s president Chris Eisgruber.
According to the website Minding The Campus, this latest news comes on the heels of several other positive signs of free speech at Princeton.
Whittington’s book identifies the obligations of institutions of higher learning to protect free speech and free expression against those who would obstruct or prohibit it.
The website also points to Princeton’s Eisgruber, Geoffrey Stone and Purdue University president Mitch Daniels “in assuming national leadership in a movement to reaffirm the commitment of American institutions of higher learning to the highest ideals of free discussion, open debate, and the civilized exchange of conflicting viewpoints.”