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Today's Executive Order instructs various federal agencies to take "appropriate steps" to ensure universities which receive federal research and education grants promote "free inquiry" and comply with other laws, incl the First Amendment. Here's why that's a problem. THREAD.
One, the language is completely vague. There is no further guidance on what steps would be 'appropriate' or what 'free inquiry' means. Apparently agencies might make their own guidelines to ensure compliance. That's a recipe for inconsistent interpretation and confusion.
Second, universities are enormous, decentralized beasts. The idea of tying research funds from a grant won by an individual faculty member to the decisions of administrators or faculty with regard to "free inquiry" in general is overly punitive, nonsensical, absurd.
Imagine punishing a whole town b/c of one individual's misguided choice? At Berkeley, 2 people with zero affiliation with the university got in a fight, and the Uni has become the whipping boy on this issue. Why would we take away its research funding as a result? No logic there.
Third, what happens now that administrators or faculty are worried about complying with the White House's definition of "free inquiry"? That's a recipe for censorship, ironically. We should oppose mechanisms being put in place to tie speech on campus to close govt oversight ...
And if, fourth, that sounds like it would actually be against the spirit of the First Amendment -- b/c it empowers the government to police speech ? -- well, there, in a nutshell, is where we're at.
Also 5. the optics of an Order about a core democratic principle, advanced in such a one-sided, politicized way, raise serious questions about the Administration's intent. There are threats against speech on the left and on the right. Why pretend otherwise?...
...The ironies are in fact manifold that President Trump and the WH seem to embrace the First Amendment today, as at other times they have disregarded journalistic freedom or even impugned the motives of kneeling NFL players... exercising their... free speech rights...
And then there's, sixth, the not insignificant problem of whether "free inquiry" on campus aligns with notions of academic freedom or disciplinary expertise.... or whether it could become cover to open the gates to pseudoscience to flourish on campuses. That's a problem.
7th- What about supporting education about free speech and the First Amendment? Or working with university leaders as allies to facilitate open debate and free inquiry? Colleges are not the enemy of free expression that this administration has frequently made them out to be.
A collaborative approach would surely go a lot further in improving the climate on campuses for free speech than what's in this EO.
