To prepare for the 2008 elections and anticipated outcries over political speakers on campuses, Cary Nelson, president of the American Association of University Professors, has sent an open letter to 3,000 university presidents urging them not to bow to public pressure to cancel invitations to controversial speakers.
“We believe education is best served by the free pursuit of all ideas, including controversial ones,” writes Mr. Nelson in the letter, which reiterates AAUP policies on academic freedom and outside speakers. “The university does not endorse a particular speaker’s view any more than it endorses the content of a particular book in its library.” The letter also reassures university presidents that having controversial speakers on a campus, particularly those who advance political viewpoints, does not endanger the university’s tax-exempt status.
The letter was prompted, Mr. Nelson said, by discussions with university presidents about the pressures they feel when polemicists come to call. In one case, he said, a president confided that a donor had threatened to withdraw a $10-million pledge if an invitation to a controversial speaker was not canceled. He said he hoped universities would distribute copies of the letter to donors and outside parties to defuse tensions before they mount.
The letter seems timely, given the uproar this week that greeted Columbia University’s invitation to the controversial president of Iran. But in an accompanying news release, the AAUP neither applauds Columbia nor criticizes the bitter attacks on the invitation.
Rather, the AAUP calls out the University of California for canceling an invitation last week to the former Harvard University president Lawrence H. Summers, who was to have spoken at a Board of Regents dinner. “Whether the invitation was well conceived is open to debate,” the news release says. “The AAUP nonetheless believes it is a bad idea either for universities or for those responsible for higher education to cancel speeches under pressure, no matter how well intentioned.” —Paula Wasley
