PR: 266 Professors Nationwide Issue Call for Prompt Restoration of Free Speech and Due Process on Campus

Contact: Rebecca Stewart

Telephone: 513-479-3335

Email: info@saveservices.org

266 Professors Nationwide Issue Call for Prompt Restoration of Free Speech and Due Process on Campus

WASHINGTON / May 4, 2020 – A group of 266 distinguished faculty members today is releasing a Faculty Resolution in Support of the Prompt Restoration of Free Speech and Due Process on Campus. The co-signers come from 43 states and represent a broad range of disciplinary backgrounds and political persuasions. The Resolution concludes with an urgent appeal: “the undersigned professors call on lawmakers and university administrators to assure the prompt implementation of new policies that will clarify grievance procedures, enhance free speech, and embrace fairness for all.”

Among other institutions, the group includes professors from 25 law schools: Brooklyn Law School, University of California – Berkeley, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland-Marshall School of Law, Denver University, Duke University, George Mason University, Harvard Law School, University of Hawaii, Howard University, Indiana University, John Marshall Law School, University of Kentucky, Marquette University, University of Minnesota, Mitchell Hamline School of Law, Notre Dame University, Ohio Northern University, University of Pittsburgh, University of St. Thomas, University of San Diego, Stanford University, Touro College, University of Virginia, and Washington University.

Since 2011, groups such as the American Association of University Professors have issued statements condemning the growing encroachments on free speech and due process. In 2016, the AAUP Council adopted a report, “The History, Uses, and Abuses of Title IX,” which highlights that as a result of federal sexual assault policies, free speech considerations “have been relegated to the background or ignored altogether.” (1)

Nadine Strossen, Professor of Law Emerita at the New York Law School and former President of the American Civil Liberties Union, has lamented that free expression on campus has become “an endangered species.” (2) The National Association of Scholars has called for the upcoming Higher Education Act reauthorization to include provisions to enhance free speech (3).

There are numerous examples of faculty members whose constitutionally based due process rights have been curtailed (4). At Northwestern University, professor Laura Kipnis was subjected to a months-long investigation because two students complained her criticism of her campus’ sexual harassment policy allegedly created a “chilling effect” on other students who wanted to file a sexual misconduct report (5).

SAVE urges the prompt implementation of the new Title IX regulation, which is expected to be issued soon. The Faculty Resolution in Support of the Prompt Restoration of Free Speech and Due Process on Campus can be viewed online. The names are listed in alphabetical order by state: http://www.saveservices.org/wp-content/uploads/Faculty-Resolution-5.2.2020.pdf

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