MIT Free Speech Alliance President Stargardt Speaks at Heterodox Academy Conference

February 14, 2025
 

MIT Free Speech Alliance President Wayne Stargardt spoke January 10 at the Heterodox Academy conference, “Censorship in the Sciences: Interdisciplinary Perspectives." The conference was held at the University of Southern California’s Dornsife School of Letters, Arts, and Sciences in Los Angeles.

 

Stargardt spoke on the subject of “Silencing Science at MIT.” He noted how in a 2024 poll at MIT, “Are you concerned about retaliation when you speak your mind?”, 68% of faculty responded that they were, from various sources: students, senior faculty administrators, the MIT Administration, and colleagues.

 

“Having faculty self-censor is going to ultimately degrade the process of knowledge and truth-seeking, and, to be perfectly frank, MIT is trying to be at the top of the game and these things don’t help," Stargardt noted. "But there’s good news. I think I would disagree with some of the prior statements that the faculty members themselves are the cause of the problem. I don’t think that’s true at MIT, and they’re starting to feel their oats.”

 

He then laid out a timeline of developments at MIT. In November 2021, 163 MIT faculty signed a letter of protest after the Carlson Lecture that was to be given by Professor Dorian Abbot was cancelled because of his views on DEI. A year later, the MIT Faculty voted to adopt a Statement on Freedom of Expression similar to the Chicago Principles that protect free speech at many universities. MIT’s incoming President, Sally Kornbluth, adopted the Statement in 2023 and charged a faculty-led committee to formulate free speech policies and rules. In 2024, MIT ended the use of DEI statements in faculty hiring, a major and concrete advance in the elimination of compelled speech. In addition, in October 2024 MIT faculty formed a Council on Academic Freedom, an independent faculty organization that can act in parallel with the official Committee on Academic Freedom and Campus Expression.

 

The conference’s many speakers included Jonathan Rauch on “The War on Truth - and how to win it,” Lee Jussim on “Mechanisms of Censorship in Academia,” and Jacob Mchangama on The Free Speech Recession and How to Reverse It: Five Lessons from History.”

 

The conference sessions were recorded and are available for viewing on Heterodox Academy’s YouTube channel. President Stargardt’s presentation is also available separately.

 

Contact: Peter Bonilla, Executive Director, peter@mitfreespeech.org

The MIT Free Speech Alliance (MFSA) has over 1,100 members. Founded by MIT alumni in October 2021 following the cancellation of Dorian Abbot’s Carlson Lecture. MFSA is a member of the Alumni Free Speech Alliance, together with sister organizations at Cornell, Harvard, and the University of Virginia, among other institutions. MFSA is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization and is independent of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.