FIRE statement: Penn resignations can be exactly what the university needs to restore free expression | The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression

Penn s next leaders must recommit to the institution s promises of free expression, not abandon them. There is serious work to do: Penn finished second to last in our College Free Speech Rankings and has maintained a terrible record in recent years on free speech and academic freedom. Giving administrators who had already been so eager to police speech and had applied such glaring double standards an even freer hand to stifle expression would be the worst possible result.

A change of leadership could be exactly what Penn needs as long as the new leadership prizes dialogue, ideological non-conformity, a culture of free speech that takes seriously the search for truth, and the process of debate and discussion that will get students there. From day one, every student should learn the value of free inquiry and how to talk constructively across lines of difference. 

Penn must now take a hard look at itself from top to bottom to learn what it can do to better serve the quest for knowledge, academic freedom, diversity of thought, and intellectual humility. Students deserve no less, and FIRE stands ready to help however we can. 

via www.thefire.org

Let’s hope.