Brian Soucek — The Opinionated University: Academic Freedom, Diversity, and the Myth of Neutrality in American Higher Education - with Mary Anne Franks

Why institutional neutrality is nothing but an illusion.  Can a university ever truly be neutral in today’s social and political climate? Pushing against the tide of universities increasingly pledging to stay neutral about contentious issues, law professor Brian Soucek argues that their promises are doomed to fail—universities can’t help being opinionated.In The Opinionated University, Soucek shows that neutrality is a myth by taking a deep dive into several prominent campus controversies of the day, including diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts and restrictions on campus speech and protest. Each issue requires universities to choose a side in what they do, if not also in what they say. In everything from curricular and admissions decisions to their response to outside rankings and their evaluation of faculty, universities express the values at the heart of their mission. Soucek argues that those pushing for neutrality are only preventing universities from standing up for their values, whether in today’s current moment of crisis or in periods of political calm.Both timely and deeply engaging, The Opinionated University calls on universities to dispense with neutrality as a governing principle and focus instead on what their mission should be, and who should determine it.  Brian Soucek is a Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law at the University of California, Davis. A scholar of free speech and equality law, Soucek has shaped national policy on academic freedom, nondiscrimination, and campus speech through his work with the American Association of University Professors’ “Committee A” on Academic Freedom and Tenure and the University of California’s Academic Senate.Soucek is joined in conversation with Mary Anne Franks, an internationally recognized expert on the intersection of free speech, civil rights, and technology. She is the Eugene L. and Barbara A. Bernard Professor in Intellectual Property, Technology, and Civil Rights Law at George Washington Law School and the author of Fearless Speech (Bold Type Books, 2024) and The Cult of the Constitution (Stanford Press, 2019). PURCHASE BOOK: https://politics-prose.com/book/9780226846156?ic_referral=i5kQ3sgoscfXpO8qNArWpsS9t3a0PP-HteixaElkNOswM7WQdwNx_2jGqxHqVaV1uNyniC2-hiJL9da59du-ACdKk80kQfQfwLLG2qSw4_AEFXQzlYYGG5b2eNVc4NAVuj9q1aU