Cornell University Silent After Professor Receives Award for Advancing Free Expression and Intellectual Diversity
“In my opinion, the purpose of Cornell, under President Pollack, is to be an institution where students can live in fear of speaking their mind, and either remain silent or go along until they graduate”
You would think the school would be celebrating this award. Why aren’t they?
Campus Reform reports:
Cornell University silent after prof receives ‘Courage in Education’ award
Despite its official ‘Freedom of Expression’ theme for the 2023 to 2024 academic year, Cornell University has remained silent after its professor won a “Courage in Education” Award in August for his commitment to advancing free speech and intellectual diversity at the Ivy League school.
“I believe that the reason they are not celebrating my award is because Cornell really has no interest in free speech, which leads to critical thinking, and which results to education, as opposed to indoctrination,” Randy Wayne, an associate professor at Cornell’s School of Integrated Plant Sciences, told Campus Reform.
The Steamboat Institute gave Wayne the award, commending his opposition to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and his help spearheading a debate sponsored by Steamboat Institute about energy and climate change at the university in March. Cornell had tried to stop attendance at the debate, Jennifer Schubert-Akin, the CEO of Steamboat Institute, recounted while introducing Wayne to accept his award in Beaver Creek, CO.
Cornell announced in April the theme for the 2023 to 2024 academic year would be free expression and academic freedom. Martha Pollack, the president of the Ivy League school, said in August that Cornell would uphold both Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) and free expression, even though the priorities are at odds with each other.
“In my opinion, the purpose of Cornell, under President Pollack, is to be an institution where students can live in fear of speaking their mind, and either remain silent or go along until they graduate,” Wayne told Campus Reform. “The result of this business model is to produce students for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exists.”
Featured image via YouTube.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Good for him.
In defense of Cornell students, most of whom are very bright, they seem to know what they’re doing when they go along. Some student groups exploit the rules and know exactly what they’re doing and getting away with. Others protest and seem to be heard within the student body. Martha steps in if she really can’t avoid it, to give the win to one side or the other, apparently without putting either side out of the game. It’s unpleasant to have to play the game like that. But I doubt it’s as dangerous as a place like Harvard to a student’s intellectual stability.
Institutional neutrality, such as the Kalven Report, is an important goal in higher education. We are talking about two sides of the same coin. If a professor should be free to participate in outside groups and express his own opinions off campus, then we should expect the university to refrain from commenting about those outside activities.
Cornell should be silent if a professor receives an award from the Steamboat Foundation. Cornell should also be silent if a professor receives an award from the NAACP or from the Proud Boys.
Faculty should be free to testify before Congress or the state legislatures, or file court briefs, publish op-eds, or give outside lectures. That is a big part of academic freedom.
If Cornell took action against Prof. Wayne or Prof. Jacobson, then we should all be screaming. But nothing happened, so this isn’t news.