I am writing to state my support for the administration’s amended protest policies and move toward institutional neutrality, and as a response to a recent statement published by a group of 52 faculty in The Daily and a report issued by the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
The university is an incredibly important venue for free speech. It is in our societal interest to ensure that it remains a platform for expression on issues of public concern. Accomplishing diverse representation in thought includes providing forums for expressing unpopular ideas, but there are practical limits to speech under the First Amendment. At times, speech by members of the University community have stretched free expression past its breaking point, both in condoning violence and by using political pressure tactics that assist foreign governments and terrorist organizations in advancing their policy goals.
Columbia University’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine recently came out in support of armed resistance by Hamas, which was designated a Foreign Terror Organization by the U.S. State Department in 1997. I mention this as Northwestern’s SJP chapter has previously expressed support for Columbia SJP and has repeatedly used rhetoric praising global intifada. SJP chapters have received funding and programmatic support from groups linked to foreign terror organizations like the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which use student organizations as means to project power across borders, influence policy and undermine public institutions.
FTOs seldom distinguish between combatants and noncombatants and have long stated their intention to kidnap and kill American and Israeli citizens worldwide; concern about their influence on campuses thus transcends the current conflict. Columbia’s inability to rein in its violent protest behavior thrust the university into turmoil, and its radical institutional culture has opened it to global criticism and driven away potential students. NU is wise to institute guidance that prevents it from following a similar path.
There is a paradox of tolerance in open societies: According to classicist Emily Anhalt, “A harmonious civil society requires tolerance, but cultivating the ability to recognize and value opposing viewpoints cannot mean becoming so broad-minded as to tolerate everything.” A notable example is a phenomenon of Russian civil society organizations that have weaponized norms of open dialogue in Europe. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and other deliberative institutions have found that numerous participants in its governance processes were bad-faith actors actively working to disrupt discourse on security and human rights.
Such is the dynamic we face now at some universities, where forums for legitimate speech are plentiful, but norms of free expression have been similarly weaponized. Unable to exact change through lobbying our political institutions, conflict has shifted to higher education, where foreign interests seek to harm the state of Israel by promoting disengagement in academic programming and divestment of university endowments. The disruption of learning environments, cultures of harassment and intimidation, destruction of property and vandalism, infringement of university operations, and violence are not speech — they are political tactics intended to forcibly impose policy change onto a larger academic community, and to compensate for their proponent’s failure to persuade through dialogue.
NU’s strategic position within the higher education landscape makes it a target for bad-faith actors that want to normalize institutional subversion as speech, radicalize future leaders of our political and civil institutions, and weaponize its culture of open dialogue. I applaud the administration’s commitment to preserving authentic forms of free expression while curtailing abusive behavior that undermines the University’s mission.
Stephen Kleinschmit is a faculty member within the School of Professional Studies. He can be contacted at [email protected]. If you would like to respond publicly to this op-ed, send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected]. The views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of all staff members of The Daily Northwestern.
