Our Enduring Commitment to Freedom of Expression

Dear members of the Columbia community,

Today marks the beginning of the Columbia World Leaders Forum, an event that, for the past two decades, has brought heads of state to our campus to share their views. The Forum provides an extraordinary opportunity for our community to engage with leaders on the pressing issues of our time and serves as yet another reminder of Columbia’s unique position in New York City and the world.

The views expressed by the visiting leaders over the years have, at times, been controversial. This is not a surprise. Leaders often discuss the challenges facing their nations from differing and sometimes diametrically opposed perspectives, and this year will likely be no different.

We believe in difficult conversations at Columbia—in a broad embrace of freedom of expression. It’s in our DNA. I intend to uphold that tradition for several reasons.

First, as a nation, we should be able to tolerate ideas, facts, and opinions that we don’t like. Tolerance is essential to building resilient individuals and a resilient democracy.

Second, it’s our mission. We have a responsibility to guide students toward intellectual rigor, to enable them to grapple with, and examine carefully, ideas different from their own. More broadly, a willingness to test assumptions is essential to our academic excellence in every field.

Third, and perhaps most important, universities—Columbia in particular—are uniquely positioned to help change the national tone. We can guide and model the art of examining complex, potent issues in a deliberate, respectful fashion. In fact, academic institutions should strive to become an antidote to a culture of internet-accelerated judgments, hot takes, and knee-jerk reactions. Our institutions were created to allow for the deep consideration of ideas deliberately and often, yes, somewhat slowly. That art is still necessary, despite enormous external pressure from social media or elsewhere. How we interact with the views of others is what defines us as a community and a country.

None of this is easy. We are working hard, for example, to navigate the tension between freedom of expression and discrimination protections at a painfully polarized moment. Every difference of opinion, and there are many, feels acute. Tuning out the cultural cacophony that demands immediate actions and reactions, and favors censure over curiosity is both essential, and almost impossible.

Our instinct might be, in such an era, to shy away from challenging events and speakers. The better course is to model how to do it well, something we will see from the academic leadership and faculty members who are hosting this week’s events.

This doesn’t mean, however, that we must tolerate speech that runs counter to Columbia’s rules or policies. Our statutes lay out quite clearly and sensibly that expression, on our campuses, does have limits, in particular as regards harassment, discrimination, or the threat of violence. Peaceful protest, civil discourse, a respectful exchange of ideas—this is our inheritance at Columbia, and I want to ensure that it is also our legacy.

So, as this week begins, and as we continue to debate the affairs of the world and this nation on our campuses, consider this: at times there will be speech that each of us finds disagreeable, even abhorrent—and we still need to protect it. Maybe even seek it out. Such a practice makes us stronger. We have an opportunity to show our nation and the world the virtue and the value of freedom of speech, of having difficult, cutting edge, and enlightening conversations at Columbia, respectfully. I know we’re up to the challenge.

Sincerely,

Claire Shipman
Acting President, Columbia University in the City of New York