Steve Baginski is a Cornell grad and a member of the Cornell Free Speech Alliance. He is calling out leadership at the school in a new piece at the New York Post:
Don’t buy Cornell’s PR baloney that it wants to ‘elevate’ free speechA coalition of 13 university presidents, including Martha Pollack of Cornell, just launched a joint initiative to “elevate free speech” on campuses.If you’re skeptical, so am I.A closer look reveals a heavy helping of the usual buzzwords.We’re told about the importance of “diverse communities” in “countering threats to democracy.”The objective: “ensuring students are civically well-informed, productively engaged, and committed to democracy.”All of which is great; none of which constitutes a bold stand for free speech.It’s really just part of the empty PR campaign meant to deflect growing criticism of universities’ handling of academic-freedom concerns.Cornell has proven particularly adept at signaling support for free expression without making any of the difficult decisions to defend it.It named this academic year the “year of free speech,” only to promptly stock the steering committee with scholars who have a background in DEI, a dogma that runs directly counter to free speech by requiring faculty to pledge fealty to a political ideology.We at the Cornell Free Speech Alliance have been calling on President Pollack to institute meaningful policy changes for two years.While she has ignored us and refused our requests for meetings, we’re pleased that she has at least paid lip service to free speech with increasing frequency since our organization launched.Nonetheless, the situation on campus remains dire.
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