The Furman Free Speech Round Up (May)

For Paladins and Friends

Intro:

Welcome to our new monthly newsletter, which you can expect to receive in your inbox the first Monday of every month. We’re glad you’ve found us.

The Furman Free Speech Alliance is a rapidly growing group of alumni, parents, and friends who are concerned about Furman University’s deteriorating campus climate for free speech, academic freedom, and viewpoint diversity.

Each month, we will update you on what’s happening on the ground at Furman and what actions we’re taking to defend free speech on campus.

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Looking Back:

March 26 marked the first anniversary of Mary Eberstadt’s canceled visit to Furman University, which she detailed in the pages of the Wall Street Journal. When explaining the decision to cancel her trip, Eberstadt cited students repeatedly tearing down posters advertising her speech, efforts to deny students credit for attending her event as part of Furman’s “Cultural Life Program,” and the utter mistreatment of Scott Yenor — another guest speaker whose event earlier in the year had been met by protests from students and faculty that he described as utterly “uninterested in learning” and “unwilling to hear.” As Yenor noted in his own subsequent letter to the Wall Street Journal:

If students were interested in ideas, then Furman police wouldn’t have had to whisk me away through the back entrance to a waiting police car.

For many of us, this incident confirmed what we already suspected: Furman has a serious free speech problem. But that wasn’t the lesson that Furman’s administration took away from the event. Only days later, President Davis replied to Ms. Eberstadt, attempting to discredit her, and released a statement doubling down on the idea that “Furman has remained steadfast in its support of the free exchange of ideas and open and civil discourse.”

This isn’t true. The experiences of Yenor and Eberstadt prove as much, as does the treatment of Furman students like Peter Paluszak, who was harassed by an angry mob of students for simply mounting a pro-life demonstration on campus. The stats also prove President Davis wrong. If Furman was as “steadfast in its support of the free exchange of ideas” as she claims, Furman wouldn’t be ranked 163^rd out of 248 schools in FIRE’s 2024 college free speech rankings, and surveys wouldn’t show that 62% of students feel “very or somewhat uncomfortable expressing their views on a controversial political topic to other students.”

This refusal to accept reality led us to begin discussing the need to found the Furman Free Speech Alliance this time last year.  Since then, we’ve received a generous start-up grant from the Beth and Ravenel Curry Foundation and successfully lobbied for Furman to adopt a new and improved statement on freedom of inquiry and expression. And we’re just getting started.

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One Stat You Should Know:

Almost 50% of Furman students report experiencing or witnessing uncivil treatment for sharing political or social views. Respondents report witnessing frequent or very frequent uncivil treatment of students with conservative views 4 times as often as those with liberal or progressive views.

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Looking Ahead:

The coming months will likely be quiet on campus, as students return home or start summer internships. Here at the Furman Free Speech Alliance, we’ll be launching pages on LinkedIn and Facebook with the goal of growing our network of alumni, parents, and friends.

We will be using these pages to provide updates from campus, host discussions about how Furman can improve its campus environment and advertise opportunities to get involved and make a difference. Our hope is that, in time, these pages not only allow us to connect better with each of you, but also allow you all to connect with one another!

So please, keep an eye out, and give us a follow.

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In the Network:

On May 16, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) along with the Alumni Free Speech Alliance (AFSA), will be hosting the 2024 Alumni Summit on Free Expression. The summit will focus on growing loss of confidence in American higher education and what alumni nationwide can do to defend free expression, academic freedom, and viewpoint diversity.

The Furman Free Speech Alliance is a member of AFSA and has received an invitation to attend. We know it is short notice, but if you are interested in going, please reach out to us at furmanfreespeech@gmail.com.