Discussion about Academic Freedom and diversity on College Campuses panelists include a documentary filmmaker plus authors and filmmakers from Yale University and the universities of michigan in chicago. University of Chicago School of social Service Administration hosted the discussion. It is about 90 minutes. Okay, good evening everyone. I am the dean of the school of social Service Administration here at the university of chicago. I want to thank you for joining us for this evenings event. American universities have long been unique institutions that have unique and controversials ideas that bring to bear deeper analyses in evidence. Such ideas can fuel advances or even breakthroughs on many questions and problems of our day. One of the most indispensable pillars in education which makes as possible is the cardinal principle and practice of Academic Freedom. The pursuit of ideas, concepts, concepts, evidence and knowledge and the passing on of such in the education of our students. The principle of Academic Freedom is essential piece of our education, the university of chicago has a distinctive and deeply held approach to Academic Freedom in which i am sure you will be hearing more about from some of our panelist. The school of social Service Administration has a professional school of social work and particularly benefits from and contributes to Academic Freedom in the pursuit of ideas. Ideas that address the concerns of those that are most vulnerable and marginalized. They dive into an address the most complicated multilayered and sometimes contentious social problems like poverty or violence. We do so in search for Real Solutions and to educate for education and justice. The ideas we discussed at fsa dont just a amongst scholars and students here at the university, but they develop and deliver to have real tangible benefit to people in their lives. Scholarship and education are intimately connected to real people and problem solving. [inaudible] they have polarized, oversimplified and not well tested ideas. The second pillar found broadly in American Education is a cardinal value on diversity that is our value on bringing to the University Community individuals from different backgrounds like experiences and statuses, especially from those from under underrepresented or marginalized backgrounds. It stems from a value on social equity and Society Inclusion as universities are arguably the most important institutions in our society which foster entering into integration in mainstream. And indispensable component is that by bringing together diverse members to the community, all of its members are enriched by the mutual exposure, experiences, background and viewpoint. In this this way our cardinal value on diversity is intertwined and the complementary branch of Academic Freedom is bringing different experiences and viewpoints and it brings with it the questioning of assumptions and the challenging of conventional or prevailing ideas. In particular, this is distinctive given that we are, as a professional school of social work, accor, concerned with questions like inclusion, access and reaching grounded understandings of Effective Service to those were most marginalized. Because of our core values on ideas that serve, ssa is very much at a point on conversations of diversity. It is for these reasons im delighted that they are hosting this evenings panel of four distinguished thought leaders on the topic. I want to especially thank ssa professors gina samuels and Marcy Barbara for their vision and working with my office in pulling together the panel. I also want to thank the committee for cosponsoring the event. Prof. Samuel will be joining us up the microphone from few moments to introduce the panelists and to moderate the event. Before she does that i want to thank the university of chicago president , bob zimmer who provided his vision and leadership here at the university of chicago and for that, i would like to invite him up to offer some welcomed comments for this evenings event. [applause] thank you very much neil. Let me say how much i appreciate the idea that they are hosting this panel in hosting this discussion on this topic. The joint topic of Academic Freedom, which i like thinking about a bit more generally are two core issues for any university, particularly 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 are doing. Universities are institutions with very clear ambition. That mission of education, mission of of research and 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 him, if we are going to have an environment in which our faculty can in fact explore their ideas to the fullest and prepare themselves to have the greatest impact, an environment of Academic Freedom and freedom of expression is critical. It is simply core to the functioning of the university in fulfilling its core mission. In a similar way, the the issue of diversity and inclusion become central to the university for two reasons that neil alluded too. First of all, if one is going to be involved in rigorous analysis and inquiry having people from different backgrounds and similar perspective sitting around, fundamentally agreeing with each other but arguing at the margins is not the way to actually make an advance or create an environment of intellectual challenge. It becomes crucial to creating the environment for rigorous analysis that underlies the success of the university. There is another reason that its so important. That goes beyond the university itself which is that the university does not exist in isolation. It exists in societal context and history. Its no surprise to anyone that the history of old country has an enormous amount of behavior built into its history. We have, therefore a dual obligation of fulfilling our own mission in bringing those diverse perspectives to bear, 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 are involved in it. I think they articulated the meaning of ssa very nicely. In terms of doing that from the point of view of ssas concrete mission. Some people have argued that Academic Freedom and Free Expression and diversity and inclusion on the other hand are in conflict. Saying there is no tension between them would be disingenuous. Saying there is an underlying conflict between them is something i actually do not believe. I believe theyre mutually reinforcing but one needs to recognize there are things that need to be worked out. Anything less than an aspiration to fully embrace both of these values is failing ourselves as an institution. The discussion tonight i am sure will look at these issues in considerably more details that both neil and i have given them. I think the reason we are able to have such discussion goes back to what neil was saying, the power and importance of open discourse and rigorous analysis and Free Expression. I just want to again thank neil, think the faculty here at ssa for organizing this and i am sure you are going to have a fascinating evening. Thank you very much. My name is gina samuels and i will be the moderator this evening. I will take several roles that i will explain in just a moment. I like to welcome all of you here this evening and extend a special thanks to my faculty and staff and colleagues for the support and work. I have to say im quite humbled to see we are at standing room only. Thank you for coming. Special thanks for being so supportive and organizing this and the cosponsorship and my colleague marcy. I can of done it without you. I extend a special gratification to the ssa community and those of you here tonight. The practice of Free Expression tonight deeply breast with all of you. I will explain that a little bit more in a moment. We will proceed by my giving a brief introduction to the panel and then i will introduce each of the panelists. They will each talk for about ten minutes. I will pose a question to them. I have given them for questions but i think that is a bit ambitious and will probably get through one or two. Then i will transition to the evening informal event which will involve an informal dialogue amongst all of us. In 1915, the American Association of University Professors advance the declaration of principles that laid the foundation for much of todays legal understanding of Academic Freedom and tenure within institutions of Higher Education. However the university of chicago as president zimmer and the dean mentioned represent a brand of Academic Freedom. We were deeply and publicly shaping and advancing these long before the 1915 statement statement. Most recently, in 2014, president zimmer and provost isaac find formed a committee on freedom of expression. It was shared by one of our pack panelists, jeff stone who restates the universitys enduring commitment to the Free Exchange of ideas and the resolute core principle and value here at this institution. President zimmer has already referenced this in his opening remarks and im sure they will likely discuss this in their individual remarks. For the contemporary university, however, debates to persist around the very meaning and limits of Academic Freedom in the context of growing diversity on campus and attunement to a campus that is not only inclusive to a diverse set of ideas, but also of a demographically demographically diverse student, staff and faculty body. This year the university of chicago dean of students issued a welcome statement to firstyear students reaffirming our longstanding commitment to diversity. This was. With the idea that faculty are not required to create safe spaces, nor issue trigger warnings. The statement was met with vigorous national and local response both affirming and contesting these views and positioning the university itself as a defender of the practice of Academic Freedom. This afternoon is a time for us to engage with each other and fully practice this freedom. It is my hope that we all deepen our understanding of our ability to critically evaluate how this value is interpreted and practiced. Now i would like to just 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 in time does not permit me to go over all of their many accomplishments. I apologize in advance. We will stick to names and affiliations so we have time to share their thoughts. My far left is prof. John boyer, Dean University of chicago college. Next is professor jeff stone, Edward H Levi distinguished prof. At the university of chicago law school. Next is professor gray wall, associate prof. , department of american studies in religious studies in a program in ethnicity and race at Yale University. Last but not least, professor of social work, university of Michigan School of social work, professor of psychology, literature and arts. With that, i would love for us to begin, professor boyer, with you. Thank you very much. I thought i would talk a little bit about two subjects that are of some interest to me. I became interested in Academic Freedom about 14 or 15 years ago i publish a small history of the idea of Academic Freedom and i came to write that book because of the number of current abroad. [inaudible] involving the backlash or reaction to some significant changes in our core curriculum. There was some lobbying groups and petitions being formed coming from rather Different Directions attempting to influence and pressure the faculty into the reverse changes or to modify the changes and also to change the content of new courses that had been developed in the context. It became very concerned about this as an episode in the long history of Academic Freedom as it occurred on universities. I thought i should take a look at the broader history. I wrote this book which is now available online. Subsequently there have been other episodes, actually all too many in regard to faculty being criticized for the things they write and say. This is certainly a live issue. I want to say two things about it. First, from the point of view, i published the family size history of the university of chicago but i do want to draw from that that i think is unique to chicago and thats the impact of the european context in Higher Education. I think this is very important because the idea of Academic Freedom is representative of a concept that were practiced vigorously and defended. Many of the founding faculty at this university were trained, if only for a short time to draw from inspiration and ideas of Academic Freedom. These were ideas that were rather strange for americans to comprehend because these were state universities but the states decided the building they were to do had to do with the advancement of original research as a National Cultural project. In some ways there was a tendency to create a homogeneous cultural thought for the good of the state but in order to create these cultures of new knowledge one had to have the freedom to do it. It was built into the whole assumption, a paradox that in order to be perfectly conformist in supporting the cultural renewal one had to be free. This model that these Young Americans observed or took up and wanted to copy and bring him to the United States, they did this in a very powerful way. They wanted to model themselves as german professors not only in the search of knowledge but also in the way, the rights and responsibilities, the pride that their work would carry with them one was not simply a private to listen confirm to being for you but also to speak ones opinion broadly. Within chicagos history, the idea of Academic Freedom became a bundle of concepts that the founding faculty use to reimagine what the university was. Used to be a Training Institution and a preparatory school. It became a site for the advancement of scholarship and not only did they embrace this in their own round but they began to understand their mission as teachers, using the same concept. If they were scholars, its really to train future scholars. These ideas did not emerge uncontested and there was a bemus case in which faculty, by their actions within the university or within the broader select realm tested the university willingness of the university to actually tolerate the claims to Economic Freedom that was taken upon themselves. One similar controversy in germany, i have written extensively about probably the most famous one in which a classic case of everyone publicly agreeing on the virtues of Academic Freedom but disagreeing on the limits then how much Political Capital the parties were willing to put in play to defend the professors that were claiming that freedom. I also want to mention within the history of Higher Education in europe, during this time one finds powerful voices emerging, articulating what this meant, what the ideas meant that he has essays and letters and commentaries that emerged where these areas are struggling both with the wealth that they had assembled and the cultural power in the mission they had assembled and then given to them by the state and the desire by the faculty to pull back and say we are not the state agents, we are are different, we are not the churchs agents. We are agents of political party. We are all of our own person and yet we are being paid for by the state. How does one assess those boundaries . The second part, the argument i want to make is that probably more than any of the other Great American universities, chicago was very much, the faculty culture was a culture that emerged and became mature and independent and was almost a bearer of these great german ideas in the absence of a kind of philanthropy, our founder didnt metal with the facultys rights. It was very easy for the faculty to come and be theoretically free and practically free. These values and identities over time within 20 or 30 years headset and gelled in this culture that Robert Hutchins who is our most eloquent defender of Academic Freedom, he was able to do what he did and defend the values of Academic Freedom because he had a faculty culture that could back him up. It makes no sense at all to me in the context except for the context of the faculty culture that was already shaped and fully dedicated and assimilated