And the universities of michigan and chicago. This is 90 minutes. Dean guterman ok, good evening everyone. I guess it is evening time now. The sun is setting so early. For those who dont know me, im neil guterman, dean here at the university of chicago. I want to thank you for joining us for this evenings events. American universities have long been unique institutions that generate novel, sometimes controversial and even iconoclastic ideas that challenge or sometimes press popular wisdom bring to bear more rigorous evidence. Such ideas can at times fuel advances or even breakthroughs on most vexing questions and problems of our day. One of the most indispensable pillars in Higher Education is the cardinal principal and practice of Academic Freedom, the protection of and unfettered pursuit of ideas, concepts, evidence and knowledge, and the passing on of such in our education of students. While the principal of Academic Freedom is an essential feature of american Higher Education, the university of chicago has deeplyr distinctive and held approach to Academic Freedom which im sure you will be hearing more about this evening from some of our panelists. The school of social Service Administration as professional school of social work benefits from and contribute to Academic Freedom in the unfettered pursuit of ideas, that address the concerns of those vulnerable and marginalized. Into ssa address and dive contentiouse most social problems like poverty and violence and we do so in search for real solution and so educate to rigorously educate social equity and justice. The ideas we discuss dont just stay among the scholars but they are developed and delivered to have real tangible benefit to people and their lives. This scholarship and education are connected to realworld people and problem solving. Ssa is oftentimes a crucible of ideas and implications in the best sense of the word who are constantly searching to forge greater insight and light and Enduring Solutions out of what is oftentimes the heat of oversimplified, or not well tested ideas or strategies. A second pillar found broadly in is diversity,tion value on bringing to the University Community individuals from different backgrounds, Life Experiences and statuses, especially those from underrepresented or marginalized that grounds. Of course, part of the importance of diversity stems from a value on social equity and societal inclusion, as universities are arguably the most institutions in our society which fosters entering into sben into the mainstream. And indispensable component of diversity is in bringing together diverse members to the University Community, all its members are enriched by the toal mutual exposure divergent experience, backgrounds and view points. Our cardinal value on diversity is closely intertwined in a complement three branch from the same tree as Academic Freedom. O universities t the experience and viewpoints brings with it the assumption of the points and challenge of prevailing ideas. At the university of chicago, particularly at ssa, the value is distinctive because we are at our core concerned with questions of inclusion, access, and reaching grounded understanding of and in service to those who are most marginalized. Ofause of our core values the ideas served complementary values of Academic Freedom and diversity, and is for the very reasons im delighted that ssa hosting this evenings on this topic. For this, i especially want to thank ssa professors for their vision and initiative in working with my office to putting together this evenings panel. As well as to thank the ssa committee for sponsoring this evenings event. Professor samuels we joining us up here in a few moments to into drews deep analysts to you this evening and will moderate the event. But before she does that i also want to take this opportunity to thank university of chicago president bob zimmer who has provided his sage vision and leadership on this issue here at the university of chicago and nationally. And for that i would like to offer him up here right now for some comments. Bob . [applause] president zimmer thank you very much. Let me say how much i appreciate ssa is hosting this panel and hosting this discussion on this topic. The joint topics, i should say, Academic Freedom and its companion, Free Expression and diversity, which i like thinking about a bit more broadly and areversity and inclusion, two core issues for any university, particularly so for the university of chicago. Neil described very beautifully why these are so important. I might just offer my own take on this, which is, to start, universities are not just a random collection of people who are here doing what they feel like doing. Universities are institutions with very clear vision. That mission is a mission of education. It is a mission of research and it is a mission of finding vehicles for the impact of that education and research. If we are going to do our students justice, do them well by the education that we provide them, if we are going to have an environment in which our faculty can, in fact, explore their ideas the fullest to the fullest and prepare themselves to have the greatest impact in of freedom and Free Expression is critical. It is core to the functioning of the university in for filling its core missions. Ofa similar way, the issue Diversity Inclusion becomes central for two reasons neil alluded to. First, if one is going to be engaged, having a bunch of people all from the same background and similar perspectives sitting around fundamentally agreeing with each other arguing only at the margins is not the way to advance,make serious and it is not the way to create an environment of intellectual challenge for our students and to fulfill their education. A diversity of perspectives, backgrounds, the lease so wants becomes crucial for creating the kind of environment for the kind of rigorous analysis that underlies the success of the university. There is another reason Diversity Inclusion is so important. That goes beyond the university that university does not exist in isolation. It exits in a societal context and it exists in history. Its no surprise to anyone that the history of really all countries, but the very particularly this country, has an enormous amount of exclusionary behavior built into its history. We have therefore a dual obligation, an obligation as fulfilling our own mission and bringing those diverse perspectives to bear in a nonexclusionary way, but we also have an obligation as an important member of society to deal with the particular history of this country and the exclusionary aspects that have been involved in it. I think neil articulated the meaning of ssa very nicely in terms of doing that from the point of view of ssas concrete mission, but the university as a whole itself has an obligation in that direction. Now, some people have argued that these two issues are in conflict to some extent, that Academic Freedom and Free Expression on one hand and diversity and inclusion on the other hand are in conflict. Saying that theres no tension between them would be disingenuous. Saying that there is a fundamental underlying conflict between them is something i actually do not believe. I believe they are mutually reinforcing but that one needs to recognize that there are in fact tensions, and they are tensions that need to be worked out. But anything less than an aspiration to fully embrace both of these values is failing ourselves as an institution. The discussion tonight i am sure we will look at these issues and consider in considerably more detail. Reason that we are able to have such a discussion goes back to exactly what neil was saying, it is an example of open discourse and rigorous analysis and Free Expression. So i just want to again thank neil, think the faculty here at ssa for organizing this and im sure you are going to have a fascinating evening. Thank you very much. [applause] prof. Samuels thank you, president zimmer. My name is gina samuels. I will be the moderator this evening. I will take several roles that i will explain in a moment. I would like to welcome all of you here this evening and i would like to extend a special thanks to my faculty and staff. I have to say im quite humbled to see we are at stranding room only. Thank you for coming. Special thanks for dean guterman for being so supportive. For their cosponsors it, and particularly to my colleague darcy. Finally, i extend a special community and ssa others of you in attendance tonight. The success in this dialogue and our exemplary practice of Free Expressions might deeply rests with each of you, and i will explain that more in a moment. We will proceed by my giving a brief introduction to this panel. Then i will introduce each of the panelists. They will each talk for about ten minutes. I will then pose a question to them. We probably wont i have given them four questions. I think that is a bit ambitious, we will probably get through one or two. Then i will us to this evenings informal event which will involve an informal dialogue amongst all of us. So, a bit of a social experiment is to come. So in 1915, the American Association of university of professors advanced a declaration of principles that laid the foundation for much of todays legal and tacit understanding of Academic Freedom and tenure within institutions of Higher Education. However, the university of chicago, as president zimmer and dean guterman both mentioned, represented a unique brand of Academic Freedom, and we were deeply and publically shaping and advancing these ideas long before the 1915 statement. Most recently in 2014, president zimmer and thenprovost isaacs formed a special committee on freedom of expression chaired by one of our panelists, professor jeff stone, that restates the universitys enduring commitment and a resolute core principal and value here at this institution. President zimmer has already referenced this history in his opening remarks and im sure the professors will likely discuss this and their leadership in our universitys contemporary practice of this value in their individual remarks. For the contemporary university, however, debates do persist around the very meaning and limits of Academic Freedom in the context of growing diversity on campus and attunement to a Campus Climate that is not only inclusive of a diverse set of ideas, but also of a demographically diverse student, staff and faculty body. This year, the university of chicagos dean of students issued a welcome statement to first year students reaffirming our universitys longstanding institutional commitment to Academic Freedom and as such, our constitutional rejection of silencing or avoiding uncomfortable or disagreeable ideas and perspectives. This was paired with the idea that faculty are not required to create safe spaces nor issue trigger warnings. This statement was met with vigorous national and local response, both affirming and attesting these views, and more deeply positioning university of chicago itself as an iconic symbol of a defender of Academic Freedom. This afternoon is a time for us as a University Community to engage with each other and fully practice this freedom. It is my hope that we all deepen our understanding of and ability to critically consider the diversity of ways with which this value is interpreted and practiced. Now i would like to briefly introduce our expert panel. We are deeply honored and excited to have each one of you here. Each of our panelists is a distinguished scholar in their own right. Time does not permit me to go over all their accomplishments, so i apologize in advance. Well stick to names and ms. Samuels with, i would love for us to begin. Thank you very much. I became interested in the from an academic and administrative perspective at the same time. , i publisheds ago a small idea of the freedom of economic interactions. I wrote that book because there were a number of currents of the backlash or reaction to some significant changes within our core curriculum design. There were some lobbying groups, petitions being formed, coming from different ideological directions of attempting to influence and pressure the faculty to modify the changes and modify the content. I became concerned about this as an episode, and the long history of Economic Freedom. Book, which is now available online. There were other episodes of faculty and students being criticize come so this is a live issue. I want to say to bring things about it. From the point of view of the istory of the university, published a Family History of the university of chicago. It is available in the bookstore. That is a plug, by the way. Relativelyhat is unique about chicago, and that is the european context, the ambient context of european education and to some extent the university of chicago. Freedom is academic represented by a bundle of concepts practiced, vigorously andht over and defended criticized within the larger context of the larger german universities. Faculty at founding this university were trained or studied at these universities, at least for a short time, enough to draw inspiration, values, and ideals on Economic Freedom. Ideas that were strange for americans to comprehend because these were state universities. Civil servants, paid in some way to do the states bidding. They decided it had to do at the advancement of knowledge and the creation of original research as a National Cultural project. Initially there was a 10 to see to create a homogeneous culture because this was good for the state. One had to allow and permit the faculty the freedom to do it, so there was built in to whole assumption of Economic Freedom a paradox, in order to be perfectly conformist and supporting the States Project of cultural renewal, one had to be free, so this tension was embedded from the very beginning. These Young Americans observed and wanted to copy and bring over to the United States. They did this in a very powerful way. Many of our distinguished staff were trained in germany and sought consciously to model themselves not only in the pursuit of knowledge and research, but also in the way they understood their rights, responsibilities, the esteem, the pride that their work would carry with it and the central concept of this professional pride was the idea of being free , not only free within the classroom, but the broader civic realm. One was not just a private citizen can find it to being class, but a citizen who could speak ones opinion broadly within the broader civic universe. History, theos idea of Academic Freedom became part of a bundle of concepts. Hat the founding faculty use it ceased to be a preparatory school. A site for theh academic advancement of scholarship. They also understood their mission as teachers using the same concept. Theiry were scholars, primary job, with all due respect for the undergraduate was to train future scholars, so they became protoscholars involved in the same universe of Economic Freedom. They did not emerge contested. And there were cases, like the case out of stanford, wisconsin, in which faculty by their actions within the university or the broader civic realm tested the willingness of the universities themselves, patrons, philanthropists, university government, to tolerate the claims to Economic Freedom the faculty word taking upon themselves. One find a similar controversies in germany. Ive written about the most famous controversy in the end, a vienna, ase in classic case of everyone agreeing about where the limits were and how much Political Capital the political parties, the state, and the churches were willing to put into play to defend that freedom. Mention thato within the history of Higher Education in europe, 189019 14, 1 finds powerful voices emerging , articulating what this meant, what these ideas meant, not only for individual faculties or , inersities or corporations a. In which the universities are struggling with the well, cultural power, and mission they have assembled and given to them by the state, but the desire of faculty to step back and say we are not the states agents. We are not the churches agents. We are not agents of political parties. We are our own persons, and yet we are being paid for by the state, and how does one assess those boundaries. Part, the argument i want to make, more than any of the other Great American universities, certainly the other new universities, chicago was very much, the faculty culture was a culture that emerged in became mature and , feeling itself as a bearer of these great european german ideas, and the absence of a kind of philanthropy. , it was easy for the faculty to feel themselves not only theoretically free, but practically free, and the practice of these families and identities over time within 2030 years had set and gerald, and it is this culture that was able to do what he did, to defend the values of Economic Freedom because he had a faculty culture to back him up and sustain it. It was a faculty culture already shaped and fully dedicated and had assimilated these ideas and internalize them for their own purposes. I want to make a second set of comments, and that is