As Israel-Hamas war protests sweep through America’s academia, it is now the University of Chicago’s job to respond. On Monday, in a strategy echoing those at Columbia, Harvard, and Yale to name a few, students at UChicago set up an encampment on the Main Quad. By mid-afternoon, University President Paul Alivisatos issued a statement upholding the University’s core commitment to free expression while condemning violations of University policy.
Free expression has been UChicago’s fundamental principle since its establishment in 1890. In 1967, The Kalven Report set the standard of institutional neutrality in response to “political action and social protest.” Today’s occupation is no different. For the University’s respect of free inquiry to maintain integrity, it must, as Alivisatos states, “provide the greatest leeway possible for free expression, even expression of viewpoints that some find deeply offensive.” That principle is universal. It is never the University’s responsibility to establish truth, but rather to cultivate an environment in which we, its students and faculty, can.
That includes taking immediate action when the free expression of one obstructs the free expression of another. As Alivisatos notes, the University will “intervene when what might have been an exercise of free expression blocks the learning or expression of others or… substantially disrupts the functioning or safety of the University.”
While he recognizes the encampment is an interference and “clearly” violates University policies, the president remarked that the University will “allow [it] to remain for a short time,” citing “the importance of the expressive rights of our students.” A casual observer of the unfolding events will understand the necessity of this decision in light of the precarious mood on university campuses. Moments like this are the sternest tests of our commitment to free expression.
But again, this freedom does not permit violating others’ freedom. Any disruption of “study, scholarship, and free movement on campus,” as well as “violence and harassment,” demands an uncompromising response. Our administrators must not downplay these threats, for UChicago is, above all, an academic institution. The University put words into action when our Police Department (UCPD) arrested occupiers of Rosenwald Hall last November. If required, it must not hesitate to act swiftly and effectively once again. Should those causing such disruption go unscathed, the University will have failed in its duty to us.
That duty is a simple reflection of the Chicago Principles: “promote a lively and fearless freedom of debate and deliberation, but also… protect that freedom when others attempt to restrict it.” Its execution, as we have seen elsewhere, is a great deal tougher.
As it did in the 1960s and the 2010s, UChicago must show the way. The world is watching.
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