EPISODE

The Spring 2024 student protests and some US universities’ use of police to end them have sent shock waves across the world, raising questions regarding the balance between free speech and maintaining a safe and productive learning environment. In an April 2024 post for his Substack newsletter Perilous Times, Duke’s David Schanzer advocates for universities to tolerate anti-Israel protests but regulate them to protect Jewish students from violence. Schanzer argues that the university is the place where students learn to understand each other and confront differing opinions, to prepare them for life in a free society, so censoring student speech is a non-starter. Tune in for a challenging and frank discussion about the lines between free speech and harassment, and how universities can learn from the student protests that have roiled campuses in the US and beyond its borders.

“We wouldn’t need a First Amendment to protect speech that everybody agreed with or liked or found pleasant.”

    -David Schanzer

“Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom – and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech.”

    -Benjamin Franklin

Lead Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash