色香视频

 This is a content holder for the one button emergency notification system.

Free tuition and mandatory fees for families earning $125,000 or less. Learn about the Bridgewater Commitment 禄

Free Speech at Bridgewater

色香视频鈥檚 Commitment to Free Speech and Academic Freedom

色香视频 is committed to an environment of teaching and learning that stimulates critical thinking, demands the rigorous pursuit of new knowledge and deeper understanding, cultivates meaningful and diverse interpersonal relationships, fosters global citizenship, and strives to transform lives and improve the human condition.

It is 色香视频鈥檚 vision that all members of the community readily embrace the University鈥檚 values of fairness, respect, dignity and free expression, causing them to think beyond the self and to be engaged in the advancement of the greater good. The common good depends upon the free search for truth and its free exposition.

A student discusses his research with two others at the STARS symposium

Academic freedom is essential to these purposes and applies to both teaching and research. 色香视频 is legally and ethically bound to respect academic freedom. Specifically, academic freedom is understood as the right of scholars in institutions of higher education freely to study, discuss, investigate, teach, exhibit, perform and publish. Freedom in research is fundamental to the advancement of truth. Academic freedom in its teaching aspect is fundamental for the protection of the rights of the teacher in teaching and of the student in learning. The scholar is entitled to full freedom in research and in the exhibition, performance and publication of the results of their research, and to full freedom in the classroom in discussing their subject, most specifically in the selection of their course materials and in the selection of texts. The scholar is entitled to discuss controversial issues.

Professor Meghan Murphy works with a student in a sociology class

The college or university teacher or librarian is a citizen and a member of a learned profession affiliated with an educational institution. When they speak, write, or express themself in any other fashion as a citizen, they should be free from institutional censorship or discipline, but their special position in the community imposes special obligations. They should at all times be accurate, should exercise appropriate restraint, should show respect for the opinions of others. They respect the free inquiry of their associates and avoid interference in their work.

As a state institution, 色香视频 is also bound to the Massachusetts Constitution, the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights, which guarantee freedom of speech and press, freedom of religion, and equal protection.

Past Speakers

 

Andrew J Cohen

鈥淢ill, Harm, and Campus Speech鈥

Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024 | 12:15-1:45 p.m. | DMF Auditorium

Andrew J. Cohen
Georgia State University

Incorporating insights from John Stuart Mill鈥檚 classic On Liberty, Prof. Cohen speaks directly to current issues of speech on campus. Why are freedom of thought and action so important? What is harm? What harms come from silencing speech? In a university setting in particular, Cohen examines the need for intellectual diversity and the major harm that comes without it.

Andrew Jason Cohen is Professor of Philosophy and Founding Director of the Interdisciplinary Studies Program in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) at Georgia State University. He is the author of Toleration and Freedom from Harm: Liberalism Reconceived (Routledge, 2018) and Toleration (Polity, 2014). He is currently working on a book on civil discourse. 

 

Dr. Erec Smith

鈥淎nti-Racist Education is Anti-Everything Except Racism鈥

Tuesday, March 12, 2024 | 12:15-1:45 p.m. | Moakley Auditorium

Dr. Erec Smith
Associate Professor of Rhetoric, York College of Pennsylvania

 

Euegene Volokh

鈥淔ree Speech in Higher Education鈥

Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2023 | 12:30 p.m. | Moakley Auditorium

Eugene Volokh
Professor of Law, UCLA; noted First Amendment expert

 

Lech Walesa

鈥淒ialogues in Democracy鈥

Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023 | 7 p.m. | Rondileau Student Union Auditorium

Lech Wa艂臋sa
President of Poland; Nobel Laureate & Global Leader

On Tuesday, Oct. 3, President Lech Wa艂臋sa came to 色香视频. A pro-democracy dissident and union organizer, Wa艂臋sa answered questions from about 20 students before giving a talk to more than 1,000 people. Read more about Wa艂臋sa's visit 禄

 
Jacob Mchangama

鈥淔ree Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media鈥

Sept. 20, 2022

Jacob Mchangama
Executive Director of Justitia; 2016 Marshall Memorial Fellow

Jacob Mchangama traces the legal, political, and cultural history of the idea of free speech. From the ancient Athenian orator Demosthenes and the ninth-century freethinker al-R膩z墨, to the anti-lynching crusader Ida B. Wells and modern-day digital activists, Mchangama reveals how the free exchange of ideas underlies all intellectual achievement and has enabled the advancement of both freedom and equality worldwide. Yet the desire to restrict speech, too, is a constant, and he explores how even its champions can be led down this path when the rise of new and contrarian voices challenge power and privilege of all stripes.

Read Dr. Aeon J. Skoble鈥檚 Bridgewater Review article about a university鈥檚 role in education and seeking truth.

According to the American Library Association, there were over 1,200 book challenges in 2022, representing 2,571 unique titles. Find out more about books from Maxwell Library鈥檚 catalog that have been banned or challenged in the United States.