Today I have the pleasure of speaking on (and moderating) a panel discussing free speech and academic freedom at my alma mater, The University of Chicago. I will also be speaking tomorrow at a separate event on law and politics. The panel on “The Path Toward Safeguarding Academic Freedom” will be held at 3 pm at the Rubenstein Forum: Peter May Boardroom.
I have long taken great pride in the position of UChicago on free speech. I have previously written on how the school has led the fight for free speech in higher education. It is also ranked as the number one free speech school in the country.
The panel will include Ilya Shapiro (Manhattan Institute), Carlos Carvalho (the La Quinta Centennial Professor of Business at the University of Texas at Austin), and Todd Zywicki (George Mason University Foundation Professor of Law at George Mason University).
I look forward to visiting my home city and particularly my soon-to-be 96-year-old mother. While the Cubs continue to toy with our emotions and the city is facing serious challenges due to poor leadership, I still love Chicago.
Jonathan: For a guy who constantly complains about conservatives being prevented from speaking on university campuses you seem to have no problem in getting speaking gigs. Now you are actually moderating a panel discussion at the U of C. Seems your appearance at U of C contradicts the very claims you have been making for years.
Of course, you don’t miss another opportunity to attack the “poor leadership” outgoing Chicago Black Mayor, Lori Lightfoot, who is being replaced by another Black, Brandon Johnson. Perhaps, you would prefer the good old days when Illinois and Chicago were led by White politicians. Say, Gov. George Ryan who sold licenses for bribes. Or, how about Otto Kerner who went to prison for his corruption while in office. Oh, for the good days when Chicago and Illinois were the hotbed of cronyism and corruption under White “leadership”!
It’s Dem leadership – nothing to do with color of the skin – it’s synonymous with bad leadership
Because JT can get to speek at the university in the that FIRE rates as #1 in promoting free speech does not provide evidence that free speech is not threatened.
If Alex Jones can not speak atr every campus in the US – then we have a problem.
Free speech is for everyone, in every public formum. or it is for no one.
“For a guy who . . .”
Lest you think that the Left is not the party of tribalists:
That tribalist commenter felt a desire to inject race four times. Proving, yet again, that race *is* “systemic” — within the Democratic party.
Mr. Turley, or any conservative being invited and allowed to speak on a college campus is an EXCEPTION and a rarity. And you know this.
Jeff – Dennis knows this. His comments are not made in good faith, but to stir the pot. The above comment’s absurdity proves this. I once tried to engage him in rational discourse but found it impossible because he would not admit what was in black and white – that he had misquoted Professor Turley. So I stopped.
For those of us 2 hours outside of Chicago (any happy with the distance), can someone record and offer for viewing pleasure the upcoming speechifying and discussion?
I believe Aaron Director was the brother-in-law of Milton Friedman. Perhaps he has another familial relationship.
As a legacy UC-er from a time when UC really was a “good” school, when I see UC’s seal I’m reminded of my mother’s translation of “crescat scienta; vita excolatur”. “Let knowledge grow; Let life be enriched” instead of UC’s more flowery version. My mother, however, also noted that the Latin was in the subjunctive mood. That means the sentiment is a wish, a hope [Obummer, perhaps?] or a condition contrary to fact. Unfortunately, UC has been Obummerized with Obummer’s confederates – Valerie Jarrett, David Axelrod, etc. – on the faculty. If you want to know why the Dumbocrats are holding their 2024 convention in Chicago, look no farther than historic Jackson Park where twenty acres are being destroyed by Obummer’s selfie, a faux “presidential library” masquerading as political headquarters for a guy who no longer lives there. This 250′ tower is smack dab on the Mississippi Flyway, an important route for spring and fall migratory birds. By the Lights Out crowd Chicago is already known as the most dangerous city for migrating birds. Obummer is doing to migratory birds and neighbors who recreate in Jackson Park what he did to health care. “If you like your health care, you can keep your health care”. LOL This monstrosity will be sufficiently completed by August 2024 to receive the admiration of conventioneers. Just remember. It’s all subjunctive.
As a U Chicago econ grad just a few years behind Jonathan myself, I can say how many of his fellow alums are as proud of him.
I take a dimmer view of Chicago’s record on free speech. It’s widely trumpeted 2015 Chicago Free Speech Statement nws, a number of quite disturbing incidents of flat censorship, punishment or deterrence of speech have happened on campus – and recently. The physics grad student who objected to DEI in admissions, the commitment of the English Dept. to admit no white students for some time, others. I perceive UC is deploying the recognition Jonathan observes as a tool to inoculate against challenges on this front.
I hope he speaks boldly this weekend. I am certain the Maoists will be out in strength to shout him down.
I have long taken great pride in the position of UChicago on free speech.
UChicago seems to have been at the forefront of freedom in multiple ways. As you no doubt recall, back in the day Aaron Director (I believe) was the only one who was willing to have F.A. Hayek join an economics faculty at a major university when Keynesian economics was all the rage. UChicago was also famously the home of Milton Friedman later on. Its law school produced law & econ luminaries like Richard Posner, Douglas Ginsburg (nominated by Reagan for the Supreme Court), and Frank Easterbrook.
As for Professor Zywicki and George Mason Law – now called the Antonin Scalia Law School – that law school was for quite a while the de facto east coast branch office of UChicago Law. The dean, Henry Manne, required all professors to get a master’s degree in econ before they could teach law, and they taught the students both law and economics, with a free market emphasis.
I’ve read in the news there are some efforts at other high-ranking universities to reverse the suppression of free speech. I think I read this about Harvard and Cornell within the last month.