Debates over free speech have simmered, and occasionally boiled over, on university campuses for decades. But in recent months, the clash over words and phrases has reached a flashpoint, reaching beyond classrooms and quads as far as the halls of Congress. College and university presidents have faced fierce criticism — chronicled in extensive media coverage — over how they’ve handled protests over the Israel-Gaza conflict and other activities at their schools, including who can or should speak at events and how to foster a sense of community safety.
Looking ahead, what can colleges and universities do to protect the fundamental principles of free speech and academic freedom while simultaneously creating an atmosphere where everyone can learn? When can speech be considered threatening, and who decides where the line is? How can journalists cover a topic so rife with nuance and rhetorical complexity? And as this debate continues, how much influence should alumni, donors, and political leaders have on campuses, private and public?
On January 10, 2024, Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky led a panel discussion about these important questions, featuring UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism Dean Geeta Anand; University of California, Irvine, Chancellor Howard Gillman; and Emerson Sykes, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project.
Watch a video of the panel discussion below, or listen to an audio version with transcript.
Free Speech & Community on Campus: Presented January 10, 2024 at 1:00pm
The Participants
Erwin Chemerinsky
Dean, UC Berkeley School of Law | Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law
Erwin Chemerinsky became the 13th Dean of Berkeley Law on July 1, 2017, after serving as the founding dean at the University of California, Irvine School of Law and teaching at Duke, the University of Southern California, and DePaul law schools. He is the author of more than 200 articles and over a dozen books, including the 2017 book Free Speech on Campus, with Howard Gillman.
Geeta Anand
Dean, UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism
Geeta Anand is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who wrote for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, Rutland Herald, and Cape Cod News during her 27-year career as a journalist. She began teaching at Berkeley in 2018 and became the journalism school’s dean in 2020.
Howard Gillman
Chancellor, University of California, Irvine
Howard Gillman was appointed by the University of California Board of Regents as the sixth chancellor of the University of California, Irvine on September 18, 2014. He is an award-winning scholar and teacher with an expertise in the American Constitution and the Supreme Court, with appointments in the School of Law and the departments of Political Science, History, and Criminology, Law, and Society. He also provides administrative oversight to and serves as co-chair of the advisory board of the University of California’s National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement.
Emerson Sykes
Staff Attorney
ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project
At the ACLU, Emerson Sykes focuses on First Amendment free speech protections. From 2019-2020, he was also host of “At Liberty,” the ACLU’s weekly podcast. Before joining the ACLU in 2018, he was a legal advisor for Africa at the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, and assistant general counsel to the New York City Council, where he contributed to the council’s friend-of-the-court brief against the NYPD’s “stop and frisk” program.