The Review: The University of Michigan tells its admins to back off

Arbitrary punishment might finally be coming to an end. ADVERTISEMENT [The Review Logo]( You can also [read this newsletter on the web](. Or, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, [unsubscribe](. Last week I had the privilege of joining Danielle Allen, Kelly Corrigan, Jarvis Givens, Frederick Hess, and Lynn Pasquerella for a plenary panel at this year’s annual conference of the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). Our subject was academe and politics, and one topic will be familiar to regular readers of this newsletter: the eagerness on the part of university administrators to placate student sensitivities about putatively offensive course content or faculty speech. The University of Michigan, for instance, became infamous in the last few years over a handful of such incidents. In 2021, David Gier, the dean of Michigan’s music school, [removed]( the composer Bright Sheng from the classroom after students complained about Sheng’s screening of a 1965 film version of Othello that featured Laurence Olivier in blackface. Showing that film, Gier said, does “not align with our school’s commitment to anti-racist action, diversity, equity, and inclusion.” Another Michigan professor, Phoebe Gloeckner, endured a [long campaign]( of student harassment and administrative investigation over the allegedly harmful material she included in a course on underground comics. SPONSOR CONTENT | The University of Queensland [Raising Awareness for the Needs of People with Aphasia]( NEWSLETTER [Sign Up for the Teaching Newsletter]( Find insights to improve teaching and learning across your campus. Delivered on Thursdays. To read this newsletter as soon as it sends, [sign up]( to receive it in your email inbox. My prediction at the AAC&U event: Such punitive administrative reprisals will become much less frequent in the coming years, in part because of the harsh light cast on campus politics by the recent Republican campus antisemitism hearing. Colleges have come to realize that they have a [public-perception]( problem. One way of addressing that problem is to reaffirm a broad commitment to free speech and to academic freedom. In the case of Michigan, that commitment has been formalized in a recently approved “[Request for Action]( on “principles on diversity of thought and freedom of expression” issued by the bipartisan board of regents and signed by the university’s president, Santa J. Ono. The regents’ statement reads in part: As a great public university guided by the letter and spirit of the First Amendment, we enthusiastically embrace our responsibility to stimulate and support diverse ideas and model constructive engagement with different viewpoints in our classrooms and labs, lecture series and symposia, studios and performance halls, exhibits and publications, and among our entire community of students, teachers, researchers, and staff. When we disagree on matters of intellectual significance, we make space for contesting perspectives. We must listen critically and self-critically. The punitive posture administrators took toward Sheng and Gloeckner is incompatible with the principles laid out here. One suspects that neither professor would, today, be treated the way they were a few years ago. ADVERTISEMENT SUBSCRIBE TO THE CHRONICLE Enjoying the newsletter? [Subscribe today]( for unlimited access to essential news, analysis, and advice. 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Yours, Len Gutkin FROM THE CHRONICLE STORE [Fostering Students' Free Expression - Buy Now]( [Fostering Students' Free Expression]( Many colleges are trying to expose students to views and ideas that challenge their own thinking. [Order your copy]( to explore how professors and administrators are cultivating environments that encourage discussion of difficult topics — in the classroom and beyond. JOB OPPORTUNITIES [Search jobs on The Chronicle job board]( [Find Your Next Role Today]( Whether you are actively or passively searching for your next career opportunity, The Chronicle is here to support you throughout your job search. Get started now by [exploring 30,000+ openings]( or [signing up for job alerts](. NEWSLETTER FEEDBACK [Please let us know what you thought of today's newsletter in this three-question survey](. This newsletter was sent to {EMAIL}. [Read this newsletter on the web](. 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