by Sean Clark
February 28, 2007
Academic freedom has never had an easy ride. At a time when the country is deeply divided politically, universities are the tinderboxes of national outrage -- and the utterances of professors and students make plenty of sparks. Even though most would agree that the height of P.C. culture passed years ago, speech codes are not dead. Loyalty oaths still pop up on campuses. Religious tolerance is uneven. Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, fields requests for help from students and professors across the country who believe their freedom of thought and expression has been pinched. And his organization responds aggressively, with a blizzard of legal threats, guidebooks on campus speech codes, and press releases hailing colleges that have backed down. He has discussed the nuanced issues of academic freedom in venues like Hannity and Colmes and The O'Reilly Factor, and now he will discuss them with us. He is joined by Samantha Harris, FIRE’s director of legal and public advocacy.