“Our basic conviction is that a great university can perform greatly for the betterment of society. It should not, therefore, permit itself to be diverted from its mission into playing the role of a second-rate political force or influence.”
So concludes the 1967 Kalven Report, written by a University of Chicago faculty committee regarding that institution’s “role in political and social action.” Nearly 50 years later, the Committee on Freedom of Expression at this same school produced the “Chicago Statement,” which echoes and reinforces the importance of free speech and open debate in universities. “Because the university is committed to free and open inquiry in all matters, … it is not the proper role of the University to attempt to shield individuals from ideas and opinions they find unwelcome, disagreeable, or even deeply offensive.”
Early universities included religious studies as part of their curriculum. The Divinity School in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England. DAVID ILIFF/CC BY-SA 3.0
Political and cultural upheavals in the 1960s and now in the 21st century brought these faculty members together to compose such guidelines regarding academic liberty and the role of universities and colleges in society. Though more than 100 other schools formally endorsed the Chicago Statement, attempts to restrict or even banish free speech outside continue to plague our institutions of higher learning.
These questions—what makes a university and what is its purpose?—are as old as the institution itself, and the answers have often differed down through the centuries, depending on historical events and circumstances.
Foundations
The Western university as we know it today came into being in Europe’s Middle Ages. Initially consisting of bands of scholars and students, these early centers of learning soon acquired endowments, property, and even special academic credentials. Eleventh-century Bologna became a hub for the study of law, while the universities of Paris and Oxford were noted for their theological studies. Greek, Latin, and scripture were taught, and with the renewed interest in the classics during the Renaissance, subjects such as history, philosophy, and literature from the Greco-Roman era also became part of the curriculum. As they had since their inception, many of these universities governed themselves, strengthening through time the ideal of academic freedom.
Archiginnasio internal court, one of the main buildings of the University of Bologna, Italy. Conte di Cavour/CC BY-SA 4.0
Influenced by the artists, writers, and scientists of the Renaissance, and the religious upheavals of the Reformation, universities slowly focused more and more attention on secular subjects. Founded by Lutherans in 1694, for example, Halle University moved away from religion and toward objective inquiry, and was eventually followed by other schools in Germany. By the 19th century, institutions like Oxford or Cambridge offered not only the classical liberal arts curriculum, but also concentrated studies in mathematics, science, law, and medicine.
Reflections Across the Pond
The Spanish were the first Europeans to establish institutions of higher learning in the New World, but the English settlers were not far behind. Harvard, William and Mary, and Yale were among the earliest such colleges, and like their counterparts across the Atlantic, nearly all were founded by religious denominations with the hope of producing learned clergymen. By the time of the American Revolution, 12 colleges, all of which exist today, were well-established.
A meeting of doctors at the University of Paris. From the "Chants royaux" manuscript, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. Public Domain
Like their European counterparts, these and other universities soon began teaching subjects like modern languages, science and mathematics, and engineering. Founded in 1802, the United States Military Academy focused on engineering along with military strategy and tactics. Seventeen years later, Thomas Jefferson’s University of Virginia opened its doors with a curriculum that included studies in such areas as astronomy, architecture, and political science.
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The 1862 Morrill Act, in which the government handed lands over to the states for the funding of public institutions of higher learning, brought the federal government into higher education. Following the lead of institutions like Jefferson’s university, these public schools taught science, medicine, law, engineering, and agriculture—practical fields of study for a growing nation. Once up and running, they helped fuel the expansion of American farming, industry, and finance.
World War II brought more landmark changes to higher education. For one, the universities became major hubs for military research and development projects, creating ties with the government that hadn’t previously existed. In addition, the G.I. Bill, which among other things offered financial assistance for tuition to discharged soldiers, both greatly increased the number of college graduates and tightened the bonds between the federal government and academia. The research and development axis between universities and the federal government continues to this day, and tuition assistance in the form of federal loans has also knitted together gown and government.
Veterans arrive to meet potential employers at a job fair for former servicemen and women on the campus of Rutgers University in 2012. John Moore/Getty Images
Current Challenges
As in the past, today’s universities and colleges face obstacles unique to our time: skyrocketing tuition; concerns as to whether the humanities, long the heart of liberal education, have lost their relevance; and the threat of distance education to the traditional classroom.Most noteworthy of all, perhaps and certainly the most newsworthy, is the radicalization among professors and students in many of these schools, where free speech is all too often stifled and current social issues of race and gender have infiltrated even STEM programs (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics).
In an October 2020 report, Samuel Abrams and Amna Khalid investigated this transformation. Mr. Abrams leans center-right, Ms. Khalid center-left, yet both arrived at the same conclusion—that on a good number of campuses, many teachers and students are afraid to express their thoughts and opinions, and that professors and administrators show a marked “liberal skew.” They conclude, “Higher education is at a critical juncture and we would do well to heed this call to resurrect, protect, and promote viewpoint diversity for all our sakes.”
And many schools do attempt to promote this “viewpoint diversity.” A look through the colleges listed by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) finds many who adhere both to freedom of expression and to traditional academic standards and subjects.
Veritas
“Veritas,” Latin for “truth,” is the motto of Harvard University. In its 2024 rankings, FIRE places Harvard at the bottom of its 248 school list for student free speech and open inquiry, with a score of 0 percent and a rating of “abysmal.”“Veritas” is also the name of the president’s monthly newsletter at the University of Dallas, a private Catholic school in Irving, Texas. In his October 2023 Veritas Newsletter, President Jonathan Sanford lays out an excellent defense of the university as a bastion of free speech, inquiry, and reason. Near the beginning of his article, he reminds us, as did the Chicago Statement, which Mr. Sanford also largely endorses, of the purpose of a university:
“We are dedicated first and foremost to the acquisition, growth, and transmission of knowledge, first to our students but also to the wider world. We are dedicated, as our mission statement puts it, to wisdom, truth, and virtue as the proper and primary ends of education. I do not think it right to post position statements as a university president, for our work is in some ways above politics, and in other ways prior to politics. We are dedicated to wrestling with, amongst other things, the moral foundations that lead to right judgment in matters of political and civilizational affairs, knowledge essential to forming prudence in these same affairs, knowledge that is all-too-often absent from the pronouncements of pundits, politicians, and public figures.”
Carpenter Hall, one of the original buildings on the campus of the University of Dallas, before its demolition in 2018. ( /CC BY-SA 4.0)
After some further general discussion of a university’s purpose, and in the case of Dallas, with its association with the Catholic church, Mr. Sanford ends by again reminding readers that a chief purpose of “the university qua university” is “to do its proper work especially well,” with one main task being the pursuit of wisdom, truth, and virtue.
In an 1820 letter to English banker, historian, and botanist William Roscoe, Thomas Jefferson wrote of the university he’d founded, “This institution will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind, for here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.”
Thomas Jefferson, 1791, by Charles Willson Peale. Public Domain
This letter from Jefferson, the “Chicago Statement,” and Mr. Sanford’s essay—these proclaim the chief reason for the existence of any university or college worthy of its name.
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