✉️ Dear President Davis (July 2025)

Five Things We’ve Learned Since Founding the FFSA

July 14, 2025
President Elizabeth Davis
Furman University
3300 Poinsett Highway
Greenville, SC 29613

I hope you and your family are enjoying a restful summer. I also want to congratulate you on a successful commencement weekend, highlighted by Kristin Huguet Quayle’s outstanding address.

With this letter, I begin a monthly communication on behalf of the Furman Free Speech Alliance (FFSA). My aim is to share reflections on campus culture and academic freedom, highlight developments we think may be of interest to you, and offer insights drawn from our work as alumni committed to Furman’s highest ideals.

As you know from our open letters and published commentary, the FFSA has both praised and critiqued Furman’s handling of free expression. We’ve applauded the Statement on Freedom of Inquiry and Expression and the launch of On Discourse—both meaningful steps. At the same time, we have raised concerns about a campus climate marked by self-censorship and institutional policies that inhibit free speech.

Since our founding in January 2024, we’ve grown into a vital source of information and advocacy. We have also learned a great deal. In the spirit of Furman’s liberal arts tradition—and the belief that all of us should remain lifelong students—let me share five key lessons:

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1. 📣 Alumni are starved for real information about campus life.
   Alumni are often surprised, dismayed, or incredulous when they hear from FFSA about the free speech challenges at Furman. Who else was going to report on the mobbing – encouraged by some faculty – of a student while engaged in an authorized pro-life demonstration in front of the library? Alumni want all the news about the campus; they want above all transparency from the administration, faculty and Board of Trustees. We have learned we can fill that need, we have learned we might be the only ones even attempting to fill that need.

2. 🧩Campus culture is more nuanced than it might appear.
   Furman is not monolithic. While ideological conformity is real, there are countervailing forces committed to intellectual rigor and genuine openness. The FFSA will always encourage you to resist ideological monoculture and to support a genuine competition of ideas.

3. 🏢 Furman’s DEI Bureaucracy Is Larger Than We Imagined
   We’ve noted recent changes in office titles and reporting lines, which make it difficult for outsiders—even engaged alumni—to understand how power operates within the administration. Transparency is critical. We also believe Furman should consider the legal and financial risks posed by the growth of this bureaucracy—risks already materializing at peer institutions.

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4. 🤐 Student Self-Censorship Is Running Rampant
   Surveys of university students nationwide reveal a troubling pattern: many fear disagreeing with professors on hot-button issues or being ostracized by peers for expressing dissenting views—even in casual conversations. We’ve learned this dynamic exists at Furman to a frightening degree. But is fear the only explanation? Or is some of this self-censorship tied to a deeper intellectual disengagement among students? Either way, the FFSA believes the university should show genuine curiosity about the roots of this silence—because neither answer is particularly reassuring.

5. 🔗 Being Part of a National Alumni Free Speech Network Is a Source of Strength

   As a member of the Alumni Free Speech Alliance, FFSA joins Davidson, Yale, Princeton, Wofford, the University of Virginia, Williams, and other independent alumni organizations supporting free speech, academic freedom, and viewpoint diversity at their alma maters. The exchange of information between these group is invaluable. Moreover, the impact of newer groups like the FFSA is amplified and accelerated through this national association.

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Apart from what the FFSA has learned over the last months, we trust you have also seen that our primary goal is to see Furman grow in national stature as an outstanding contributor to the advancement of knowledge, driven by a fundamental and unwavering dedication to free expression and free inquiry.

You will find us to be your strongest ally when it comes to advancing academic freedom, diversity of thought, and open debate.

Sincerely,

Jeffrey Salmon
President
Furman Free Speech Alliance

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