Free speech at Yale: Four things to know

A few days ago, an angry crowd of Yale students called for the resignation of Professor Erika Christakis and her husband, who defended her, all for an email she wrote defending free speech.  In this and other similar incidents on campuses around the nation, students have tried to silence speech—including, ironically, speech defending the whole idea of free speech—simply because they disagreed with it. 

{mosads}This is deeply troubling, but it is not new.  In 1974, a Yale law student wrote that “[u]nder certain circumstances, free expression is outweighed by more pressing issues, including liberation of all oppressed people and equal opportunities for minority groups.”  Fortunately, he was the lone dissenter from the Woodward Report, a ringing defense of free speech that governs Yale to this day.  The report reflected on ten years of tumultuous student protests and called on every member of the Yale community to protect free speech and exercise it responsibly.  The report contains four lessons that apply with equal force today.

Lesson #1: The solution for speech you don’t like is more speech. In its most famous line, the report says, “The history of intellectual growth and discovery clearly demonstrates the need for unfettered freedom, the right to think the unthinkable, discuss the unmentionable, and challenge the unchallengeable.”  Or, as President Obama put it, “you don’t have to be fearful of somebody spouting bad ideas. Just out-argue them. Beat ’em. Make the case as to why they’re wrong. Win over adherents. That’s how things work in a democracy.” The way to challenge an idea you don’t like isn’t to silence the speaker, but to counter the speech with speech of your own. That’s what other Yale students did a few days later after the Christakis incident when they joined the March of Resilience—and it’s the opposite of telling someone you disagree with to “be silent,” as a group of Yale students told Christakis’ husband when he tried to defend her. 

Lesson #2: Because universities exist to pursue knowledge, they have an obligation to protect free speech. As the report recognized, “The primary function of a university is to discover and disseminate knowledge”—not to foster “friendship, solidarity, harmony, civility, or mutual respect.”  Yes, the latter values are vital and should be protected—but not at the cost of free expression. This means that campuses will sometimes be uncomfortable places, as people who believe deeply different things come together in the same community.  But if your first goal is understanding, then discomfort is not failure—silence is.

Lesson #3: Everyone who joins the university community assumes an obligation to protect free speech. The third lesson flows from the second. When you join the university community, you assume the responsibility of protecting free expression on campus. This responsibility applies to students and administrators alike.  But as the Report points out, university officials have “a special obligation to foster free expression and to ensure that it is not obstructed.”  In the case of the Christakises, that means clearly and unequivocally stating that they had a right to engage in protected speech and will not lose their jobs for doing so, no matter how many protestors say otherwise.  Fortunately, Yale President Peter Salovey did just that in a recent email.

Lesson #4: Everyone who joins the university community also has an obligation to consider carefully how and when he speaks. The free speech issues addressed in the report involved the major issues of that era—the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights movement, and racial equality. Even so, the report cautioned against deliberately and unnecessarily offending others. “Shock, hurt, and anger are not consequences to be weighed lightly. No member of the community with a decent respect for others should use, or encourage others to use, slurs and epithets intended to discredit another’s race, ethnic group, religion, or sex.”  So too today:  Those of us who believe in free speech should be the first to speak out when students or others use this freedom in frivolous ways intended simply to provoke. 

In short, this year’s protests are a good opportunity to remember why we have free speech, and how important it is for universities in particular to guard it.  The task belongs to all of us—students, staff, alumni—who have benefitted from being part of a university in which truth is valued and community is formed around our shared commitment to finding it together.

Schaerr, a Washington, D.C. attorney and adjunct professor at Brigham Young University’s law school, holds a law degree and two master’s degrees from Yale.