The University of Chicago has built a brand around the idea that its students should be not afraid to encounter ideas or opinions they disagree with.
To highlight this, the school is giving prospective students copies of the 2014 freedom of expression statement declarationknown as the Chicago Declaration, which states that freedom of expression is an “essential part” of culture.
And the university has long had a policy of institutional neutrality, which strongly discourages it from divesting companies for political reasons or making statements that align it with a social cause. This neutrality, the university states, enables a robust, unhindered exchange of ideas.
Many professors swell with pride as they talk about how the school's commitment to these principles has endured through two world wars, Vietnam and, more recently, the tumult of the Trump administration. And more than that 100 settings have adopted or endorsed similar principles.
But the University of Chicago's image as the citadel of free speech is being tested again — this time over an encampment on the Central Quad that protesters of Israel's war in Gaza have refused to leave for more than a week.
The university left dozens of tents in place, even though they were violate a policy against erecting structures in public spaces. The school wanted to show “the greatest possible latitude for free expression,” said Paul Alivisatos, the university president.
Now, citing the disruption of student life and the decline in civility on campus, the university wants the encampment to disappear.
So far, negotiations between the two sides have failed. The university said in a statement on Sunday evening that the talks had been suspended.
Student demonstrators view the government's demand as hypocritical.
“The university is constantly concerned about this point about freedom of expression,” Youssef Hasweh, a fourth-year political science major, said during a rally on the Quad on Saturday.
He said the school is telling protesters, “we're giving you your First Amendment rights, and we're one of the few universities that do that, so we're the good guys.”
But as he sees it, Chicago's speech principles are a fig leaf. “They're really just using that to shut us down.”
Across the country, the encampments have forced administrators and students to grapple with the outer limits of freedom of expression. The tents, students argue, are a form of expression, but for administrators they violate rules about physical space and campus disruption.
Should academic institutions ignore their own policies against disruptive activities for the sake of expression, even as many Jewish students feel their identities are under attack? When does a protest dominate a campus to such an extent that it drowns out opposing views? And what if encampments overwhelm student life, with drums and chants impacting the ability to study for finals?
Some schools have reached agreements with protesters that have lowered the temperature, at least temporarily. And students have dismantled their encampments.
But as Chicago's leaders search for a way to take down the tents, they may not find many palatable options. When you involve the police, you risk the kind of chaos that no school principal wants to happen on their watch. And a quad full of tents as families arrive for graduation isn't ideal either.
But in some ways, the discussion about encampments is as much about the culture of debate and disagreement as it is about freedom of expression. Students who have come of age and learned concepts like safe spaces are now accusing universities of silencing them for behavior called anti-Semitic.
Geoffrey Stone, a law professor at the university who oversaw the 2014 Chicago statement, said some nuance has been lost. While the First Amendment protects people's right to “say things that scare other people,” Mr. Stone said, “what you want to say to students and citizens is: You should try not to do that.” You must deliver your message in a civil and respectful manner.”
Tents, music, disruption
The University of Chicago quad was throbbing with the noise of protest all weekend. The encampment, a mini-village of more than a hundred tents, is just steps away from the building that houses the president's office.
At any given time, the area was teeming with dozens of students, who seemed to be enjoying unseasonably warm spring weather. Bob Dylan blared from the speakers. Chants that many Jews view as a call to eradicate the state of Israel – “Free, Free Palestine” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” – rang out. Chalked slogans covered the sidewalks: “Staying Invested is a Political Statement, Not Neutrality” and “Chinese Queer Feminists for Palestine.”
Rev. Jesse Jackson even came to visit.
However, there was clearly tension as some students wore masks or kaffiyehs to cover their faces. Protesters held up blankets to prevent photographers from taking photos. Some Jewish students walked through the quad on their way home from service, passing signs reading “Globalize the Intifada” and “Jews now say ceasefire.”
When student protesters first set up the camp on April 29, the university president, Dr. Alivisatos, a clear message to the demonstrators that his clemency would not last indefinitely.
But students say they will stay on the quad until their time to demand are met, covering a range of issues both related to and affecting the Palestinian cause. These include withdrawing investments that finance military operations in Israel; declaring that genocide and 'scholasticicide', the destruction of Palestinian universities, are taking place in Gaza; disbanding the campus police; and ending the construction of new buildings in the surrounding neighborhood, as a way to stop gentrification.
These don't seem to be working in the government because of Chicago's policy of neutrality. The country has resisted such pressure before. While other leading universities in the 1980s responded to student demands to divest from companies doing business in South Africa, the University of Chicago was a notable exception.
But the university has also been inconsistent, said Mr. Hasweh, the student protester, pointing to her rack of support for those affected by the invasion of Ukraine.
To some protesters, Chicago's vaunted doctrine of free speech seems like a dusty relic, irrelevant to what's happening in the world, especially when it comes to the war in Gaza, which for them amounts to genocide.
Speech principles are relatable to many students and teachers in “the way that Procter & Gamble value statements relate to Procter & Gamble employees,” says Anton Ford, an associate professor of philosophy who was at the camp. “We did not vote on it. The students did not vote for it. No one asked us our opinion about them.”
Callie Maidhof, who teaches global studies with a focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, advises protesters in their negotiations with the government. She said the university was “strategically using” its position on neutrality as a way to control the demonstrations.
“I hear people say, 'I love freedom of speech, but this goes too far,'” said Dr. Maidhof. 'But where is the line when you're talking about 40,000 deaths? What could be considered too far?”
And now, deadlock
Friday, four days after the encampment began, the university sent a sobering message to the demonstrators.
“The encampment cannot continue,” wrote Dr. Alivisatos in a statement. It had caused a “systematic disruption of the campus,” he continued. “Protesters are monopolizing areas of the Main Quad at the expense of other members of our community. Clear violations of policy have only increased.”
He added: “The protesters in the camp have flouted our policies instead of working within them.”
The university has accused student protesters of engaging in the kinds of activities that run counter to Chicago's culture — including shouting at counter-protesters and destroying an installation of Israeli flags. The student newspaper, The Chicago Maroon, reported that protesters used a projector at one point this weekend to display a blasphemous insult to Dr. Alivisatos at the main administration building.
The tent village was a sprawling and humiliating reminder that even an institution dedicated to fostering a culture of agreeable disagreement cannot quell the outrage that has led to raucous demonstrations, building occupations, graduation disruptions and arrests at colleges across the country. whole country.
“If anyone were to design a stress test to reveal all the fault lines and unresolved issues in higher education among student activism, this would be it,” says Jamie Kalven, a journalist who has extensively studied the history of the University of Chicago with relating to freedom of speech and expression. protest.
Mr. Kalven's father, Harry Kalven, was chairman of the committee that founded the university position on political neutrality in 1967. The current impasse, the son said, reflects how many students — on Chicago's ivy-covered campus and beyond — do not share the school's values when it comes to political expression.
“It's really remarkable the extent to which young people are alienated from what I consider the First Amendment tradition,” he said.
And the stalemate reflects the extent to which the current combative political climate has also infected academia.
“The default setting is confrontation,” said Eboo Patel, president of Interfaith America, a Chicago-based nonprofit that promotes interfaith cooperation.
“What was the symbol of the Nonviolent Student Coordinating Committee?” Mr. Patel asked, referring to one of the most active civil rights groups of the 1960s. “It was two hands clasped together.”
And what is the symbol used today by many groups seeking social and political change? Mr Patel replied: “The fist.”
The ability to interact productively with people who share different political views is something that Olivia Gross, a fourth-year student, wants young people to learn to do more naturally.
“I came here to hear opinions different from my own,” she said in an interview. “That's the point of coming to the University of Chicago. I want to know what you think and why you think it.”
But she said the current climate made that difficult at times.
Students in the encampment, she noted, had set up tents for various purposes — for welcoming protesters, for medical needs and for food.
“How nice would it be,” she mused, “to have a tent that invites dialogue across differences?”
Bob Chiarito reporting contributed.