How should we think about the free speech issues in the recent controversies at the University of Missouri and Yale? In my view, universities have a deep obligation to protect and preserve the freedom of expression. That is, most fundamentally, at the very core of what makes a university a university.

This has not always been true. Throughout history, colleges and universities have limited freedom of expression in all sorts of ways. In the nineteenth century, they often forbade the expression of any views that were inconsistent with Christian religious doctrine, including of course the doctrine of evolution. In the twentieth century, they often forbade the expression of any views that were seen as unpatriotic during World War I or as communistic during the McCarthy era. Today, the battle is primarily over expression that makes students feel uncomfortable or unsafe. The principles, though, are the same.

Last year, I chaired a faculty committee at the University of Chicago that was charged with the task of drafting a formal Statement of Principles for the University on freedom of expression. That statement, which can be found here, has since been adopted by a number of other institutions, including Princeton, Purdue, and American University.

Drawing on the principles articulated in that Statement, but speaking only for myself, I would offer the following thoughts about the events at Missouri and Yale...

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