Nico and FIRE President & CEO Greg Lukianoff appeared on an X Space to discuss the fallout from the recent congressional hearing on anti-Semitism involving Harvard President Claudine Gay, MIT President Sally Kornbluth, and former Penn President Liz Magill, who resigned last week following backlash over her testimony.

Timestamps

0:00- Introduction 

1:53 - History of FIRE

5:40 - MIT/Harvard/Penn presidents’ testimony 

11:35 - How speech codes are abused and conflict over the definition of genocide 

14:05 - Penn “water buffalo” incident 

16:20 - Will universities take the wrong lesson from these hearings?

21:25 - Double standards on campus 

23:41 - Standards for hostile environment harassment, Title VI

26:43 - Is there a university that is currently handling the situation well?

31:19 - Institutional neutrality 

38:29 - Guidance for donors  

41:51 - The mission of the university

47:35 - College admissions and political litmus tests 

51:20 - Faculty viewpoint diversity 

57:17 - The path forward 

 

Show notes

Show Transcript

The Canceling of the American Mind

Congressional hearing

FIRE’s College Free Speech Rankings

Kalven Report

“Mighty Ira”

Richard Berthold (“anyone who can blow up the pentagon has my vote”)

Student arrested for true threats at Cornell

Skokie case (neo Nazi protest in Illinois) 

The Eternally Radical Idea (Greg’s Substack)

 Penn “water buffalo” case