Khalidi’s organization has tracked how speech about Palestine has been targeted for censorship and punishment, including the work and speech of academics and students.
During the program, “Threats to Free Speech and Academic Freedom on Campus,” sponsored by the ABA Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice, Khalidi and other free speech advocates discussed historical and recent executive orders and actions that have disrupted the flow of education on campuses.
David D. Cole, the Honorable George J. Mitchell Professor in law and public policy at Georgetown Law and the former national legal director at the ACLU, said, “It’s not a mystery to me why so many universities have been quiet. They’re very dependent on federal funds. Federal funding is discretionary. You can win a lawsuit and nonetheless lose the war if next year Congress takes away a lot of funding that you depend upon and you can’t really demonstrate that it’s connected to what you did. It’s not an easy call by any means, but it’s an absolute essential call that universities stand up.”
Cole said that Harvard University’s stand against recent executive orders “really changed the game,” and that he hopes many others will do the same.
The panelists agreed that people need to do more to stand up for freedom of speech and academic freedom. According to Cole, one thing people can do is join civil society organizations that stand up for the principle. He said alumni should encourage their alma maters to stand up by writing letters of support, and faculty could collectively engage in supporting their school administrations for standing up to the resistance. “I don’t think it’s easy, but it’s absolutely critical to do,” Cole said.
Danielle R. Holley, president and professor of politics at Mount Holyoke College and former dean at Howard University School of Law, said schools must think about layoffs and the close of critical research when they lose large amounts of government funding.
Holley said it has been easier for her to speak out because her school does not have a lot of federal funds and because they lost federal funds supporting gender research early on.
“We knew that all of our work would be disfavored because of the viewpoint discrimination of the current government, but many colleges and universities are trying the best they can to fly under the radar and keep their federal funds preserving the work that they do,” Holley said.
Holley said a school’s board plays a huge role in how universities can speak up. She said most of them want their universities to live out what they have pledged to be. “I really believe that in this era we will all be judged for whether we agreed with the closing down of free speech and of academic freedom or whether we fought back,” Holley said. “And to me, I’d rather stand on my principles, values and vision every day.”