Earlier today, the National Association of Scholars (NAS) issued an important statement on the Higher Education Act, which is currently up for reauthorization by Congress. The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, alongside 50 additional signatories, proudly endorses the National Association of Scholars’ call to include protections for First Amendment rights on American college campuses in the reauthorized law.
The document also recommends measures of accountability and consequences for colleges and universities which do not protect free speech and intellectual freedom:
Public institutions with restrictive speech zones and speech codes, discriminatory treatment of religious groups, and other policies and practices that violate the First Amendment must be stripped of eligibility for federal student loans and grants … And private colleges should make all speech and association policies transparent and open to the public as a condition of eligibility or Title IV loans and grants.
Martin Center president Jenna A. Robinson said, “In an ideal world, universities would proudly commit to the principles of free expression and open debate. In reality, colleges and universities across the country regularly curtail the speech of students and faculty. Protecting speech is too important to ignore any longer.”
Both Robinson and Martin Center director of editorial content George Leef are signatories on the statement.
We encourage you to read the statement in its entirety on the NAS website.