“Some ideas are like lightning rods for making people uncomfortable, and for good reason. Arguments are tied to people’s feelings,” Cameron Okeke from The Urban Institute, during Thursday night’s for “Can We Talk?”: Free Speech, Safe Spaces and Campus Conversations, a panel discussion on free speech, specifically on college campuses in a packed Watson forum.
The panel was moderated by visiting Pulliam professor of journalism, Deborah Douglas, and hosted, in addition to Okeke, communication studies professor Jeffrey McCall, DePauw University President Mark McCoy and Miranda Spivack, former Pulliam professor.
Topics ranged from freedom of expression versus the need for safe spaces on college campuses, if it is ever proper to curtail free speech, what the specifics the DePauw Student Handbook gives about free speech mean, among other things. Okeke took the stance that safe spaces and free speech are not mutually exclusive, but with that comes the caveat that there are consequences to free speech.
Okeke also brought up the point of what free speech really means in the context of identities, and that when you have to argue about your identities, you’re already at a loss.
The discussion of free speech specifically at DePauw became a large talking point during the discussion. McCall urged faculty to take a stronger stance regarding free speech.
“Faculty have to be committed to the concept of the freedom of expression,” McCall said, “The free speech environment is a rough and tumble environment.”
Silence followed a student’s question about DePauw’s speech code rating of red by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. What this means, according to their website, is that DePauw has at least one policy that “both clearly and substantially restricts freedom of speech.”
When asked specifically about this rating, McCoy was unaware of what this rating meant regarding the University and was unable to give an answer.