MIT Free Speech Alliance Praises MIT President’s Support for Free Expression Statement and Investment in Long-term Reforms
MIT Free Speech Alliance Praises MIT President’s Support for Free Expression Statement and Investment in Long-term Reforms
CAMBRIDGE, Feb. 20, 2023 – In a statement sent to the MIT community Thursday, MIT President Sally Kornbluth
endorsed the free expression statement passed by the Institute’s faculty
in December 2022. This statement roughly parallels the Chicago Statement on free speech that more than 90 institutions, such as the University of Chicago and Princeton University, have adopted or emulated. Kornbluth gave the statement her endorsement following Wednesday’s meeting of the MIT faculty, at which the review process for the statement was officially completed.
“I strongly endorse the final statement, which is confident, nuanced and alive to the subject’s inherent complexity and tensions,” Kornbluth said in her
statement. Kornbluth also calls on the community to take inspiration from the statement “to remember that the right to freely express our own positions is so precious that it demands our protection – which also requires that we protect it for those whose views we reject.”
“The MIT Free Speech Alliance strongly encouraged President Kornbluth to endorse the new free expression statement, and we’re very pleased to see her do so now,” said Peter Bonilla, MFSA’s Executive Director. “Kornbluth’s statement is a ringing endorsement of the importance of free expression, of being exposed to a variety of viewpoints and experiences, and to dialogue across differences.”
In addition to giving the new free expression statement her strong support, Kornbluth also announced a number of steps her administration is taking to strengthen free expression as an institutional value. These include reviewing MIT’s existing policies on free expression and academic freedom and establishing a team to review the recommendations made by MIT’s Ad Hoc Working Group on Free Expression
in its report issued last year.
“We fully agree with President Kornbluth’s sentiment that it takes more than a free expression statement to meaningfully impact an institution’s culture on free expression,” Bonilla said. “However MIT goes about the work of building on the promise of the statement, MFSA believes it’s crucial that its commitment to free expression be evident from the day students set foot on campus – such as through orientation programs for first-year students.”
Charles E. Davis ‘87, MFSA President, added: “President Kornbluth has signaled a long-term commitment to the health of free expression at MIT, and we share that commitment. We look forward to working together in pursuit of this goal, and to taking opportunities to model constructive discourse and debate for the MIT community.”
The MIT Free Speech Alliance was founded by MIT alumni in October 2021 following the cancellation of the prestigious Carlson Lecture. MFSA is a member of the Alumni Free Speech Alliance, together with sister organizations at Cornell, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, the University of Virginia, and other leading institutions. MFSA is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization and is independent of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.