三亿体育官网

by James Helicke

How do colleges and universities talk about contentious issues across a deepening political divide? How do campuses promote the free exchange of ideas in an age of social media and artificial intelligence? Is it possible to stave off further polarization? Have colleges become overly 鈥渨oke,鈥� do we need safe spaces on campus, and is democracy even worth it? 

These questions were among the many challenging issues that leading academics, public intellectuals (including New York Times columnist David Brooks), and 三亿体育官网 faculty and students engaged and debated at the Speech and Expression on College Campuses Symposium, April 14-15.    

The topics were challenging, views were divergent, and answers were not always clear. And the program鈥檚 organizer, 三亿体育官网 President Marc C. Conner, wouldn鈥檛 want it any other way. 

鈥淭he hope was just to do it 鈥� to spend a weekend talking about speech and expression,鈥� Conner said. 鈥淭his is the age in which we live: Polarization. Intolerance. The Manichean world of us versus them. All intensified by the phenomenon of social media 鈥� Students today are coming into their political consciousness in this environment. We have an uphill battle to convince them that this is not the way democracy works.鈥�  

From left, Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor and director of the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University; Michael Roth, president of Wesleyan University; and New York Times Columnist, author, and commentator David Brooks each spoke at the symposium.

 Presenting an alternative 鈥� a positive model of dialogue and democracy in action 鈥� was what the high-profile, two-day symposium at the Arthur Zankel Music Center was all about. Through their participation, panelists showed their collective commitment to the robust and respectful exchange of ideas while exploring ways to safeguard free speech and expression in an increasingly charged environment. 

Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor and director of the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University, opened the symposium on Friday, April 15, by citing statistics showing fewer younger people deemed it essential to live in a democracy. Allen explained why democracy matters.  

鈥淒emocracy is the only structure of government that gives us the space to govern ourselves and our private lives, and the opportunity to govern with others together in our public lives, so we can work together, we can co-create the laws, the norms, and the constraints that shape and structure the world we share,鈥� Allen said in her keynote address on Friday, April 14. 鈥淥nly democracy is designed to ask to activate human beings as a creatures of purposes and judgment that we are. That's why democracy matters, why it's precious, why preserving it is worth our energy and our commitment, our stamina.鈥� 

At the same time, Allen said it was unrealistic to expect disagreement to go away.  

When you empower people to govern together, you will have disagreement by definition, so a love of democracy has to bring with it a love of disagreement.

Danielle Allen

Harvard University

A panel of 三亿体育官网 faculty moderated by Professor of English Calvin Baker started a full and lively day of conversations on Saturday, April 15. Associate Professor of Political Science Flagg Taylor offered philosophical insight as he drew on lessons from Plato, the abolitionist Frederick Douglass, and Taylor鈥檚 own course at 三亿体育官网, Free and Civil Speech. Senior Teaching Professor of International Affairs and Arts Administration Scott Mulligan spoke from a legal perspective. Even as social media and artificial intelligence make it easier to disseminate falsehoods, Mulligan argued that silencing speech on campus usually ended up doing more harm than good. Associate Professor of History and Frances Young Tang '61 Chair in Chinese Studies Jenny Day