“Why are you punishing students for free speech?”
This is the question a Cornell student asked me last Saturday, as I crossed campus on my way to an event during Cornell Family Weekend.
One thing I’ve learned, over four decades of teaching and advising, is that if one student asks a question, they’re probably not the only one to have the question. And when a student asks a question in a way that demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding, they likely aren’t the only ones with that misunderstanding. I didn’t have time to give a full answer then, but I’d like to give it here, for others who might have the same question themselves.
As a private institution, Cornell is not required to adhere to the strict speech protections of the First Amendment, but the concept of an inherent right of free expression is so essential to the process of unfettered inquiry that universities depart from it at their peril. Examples of those departures during the Red Scare, Vietnam War and other periods of government pressure did not reflect well on many universities; part of learning and growing is the act of questioning the views of others, including university and government leaders. It is a concept of respect not only for the rights of the individual, but for the rights of the university community to express its opposition to government or university policy without fear of consequences.
Whether protected by the Constitution or, as at Cornell, by a core institutional commitment, the right of free expression is not unlimited. Speech that constitutes a direct threat to others, or violates the rights of others to speak or attend events (“heckler’s veto”), is never protected, since its function is not to share thoughts and ideas, but to silence them. To ensure both the right of free expression, and the right to pursue one’s own work, universities commonly enact “time, place and manner” restrictions on speech. These are designed to protect and platform the speech of the protestor, while also securing the rights of those around them. In practice, this means that we, like every other school, college and university, seek to balance the right of free expression with the rights of others, and with the core functions of the university: protecting the right of speech while also protecting individuals’ rights to study, go to class and pursue research, as well as the university’s ability to conduct lectures, athletic events and commencement ceremonies.
As a university, we have an institutional responsibility to set policies that clearly define the expectations of our community, and the consequences of choosing not to respect them. At the beginning of this semester, Interim Provost John Siliciano and I communicated those policies, particularly emphasizing measured responses to peaceful protests that did not disrupt educational activities even if they violated time, place and manner restrictions, as well as our responsibility to prevent disruption of university activities and destruction of university property.
Unfortunately, on Sept. 18, a number of members of our community chose to disregard those policies, expressing their views in a way that fell far outside the standards of Cornell. Masked students forcefully and violently entered and disrupted an ILR Career Fair at the Statler Hotel, where representatives of Boeing and other companies were discussing career opportunities in human resources. Pushing past two lines of police and making so much noise that the event could not continue, members of our community exercised the heckler’s veto. Their actions disrupted the activities of the university, prevented other students from pursuing their goals, and violated both our Interim Expressive Activity Policy and our Student Code of Conduct. Consistent with our policies, Cornell students who were identified as having participated in this disruption have been referred for conduct violations according to the procedures and the protections outlined in the Student Code of Conduct. Where appropriate, criminal charges have also been filed.
Coming back to the question the student asked, no one has been referred for their speech, and free expression remains fully protected at Cornell. But we must understand the difference between protected speech and speech or actions that are designed to suppress the speech and rights of others. Recent Sun letters similarly appear to confuse this issue. Shouting or writing “f*ck you Boeing” is free speech and fully protected; preventing Boeing from discussing jobs with students is not. Calling someone a “kapo” is offensive, but protected speech; breaking through a police line is not.
When I quickly tried to point out this distinction to my questioner, she responded that “Boeing kills babies.” That is not a free speech argument, but rather one that asserts a moral justification for violating the rights of others; that assumes the right to decide what activities other students may pursue, what conversations they may have and with whom they may have them. Whatever their argument, whatever the grounds on which they see their actions as justified, we need to be cleareyed about what those actions are: not the assertion of the right of free speech, but the presumption of the right to suppress the speech of others. Jefferson, the flawed individual, but great political theorist and proponent of free speech, asked when arguing against censorship and for religious freedom: “Whose foot is to be the measure against which ours are all to be cut or stretched?” Indeed, who gets to decide which university activities are acceptable and which are not?
No student at Cornell has been punished for expressing their beliefs. Neither will any student be permitted, whatever their feelings of moral righteousness, to forcibly deny others the rights that are central to our mission at Cornell: the rights to freely speak, converse and learn, with whomever and about whatever they choose.
Michael Kotlikoff is the interim president and former provost of Cornell University. His two year term as president began in July of 2024. His office be reached at [email protected].
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