Commander of Free Speech, Zach Wood '18, Guest Hosts The Power Line Show

WILLIAMSTOWN, MA - I was proud to see Zach Wood, easily one of Williams College's bravest and most talented students, got a chance to guest host the Power Line Show. You can hear it by clicking on the audio link established in this Power Line article. While you are at it, check out this glowing introduction from Power Line's Steve Hayward:

This episode flips the usual format, with my guest interviewing me for a change. I first took note of Zachary Wood when he was an undergraduate of Williams College. He was the president of a student group called “Uncomfortable Learning,” whose mission was to invite to campus outside speakers with a heterodox perspective (which is code for “conservative” for the most part). Invitees included Charles Murray, Christina Hoff Sommers, David French, John Christy, and others. For this transgression against campus orthodoxy, Zach was dressed down by the president of William College, and further instructed that he should “be careful” about what he wrote in the student newspaper—a story he tells in this article published recently by the National Association of Scholars.

From this experience Zach has understandably became concerned about free speech generally, and freedom of the press in particular, and when Zach told me that he was interested in recording some interviews and conversations with people (starting with me) on free speech and free press issues, but didn’t yet have an online platform ready to launch, I decided to offer him an episode of the Power Line Show to start things rolling and get some practice. As journalism was my first career right out of college back around the time of the Boer War, we thought it would be fun and informative to go through some long-term perspectives on modern media.

Zachary R. Wood is an Assistant Curator at TED, a former columnist and Assistant Opinion Editor at The Guardian, and a former Robert L. Bartley Fellow at The Wall Street Journal. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, HuffPost, The Nation, The Weekly Standard, Times Higher Education, and Inside Higher Ed. In 2017, he gave Senate testimony opposing the recent string of college speaker disinvitations and in defense of viewpoint diversity. He’s planning to attend law school in the not too distant future.

RealClear Politics Reports Williams College Among Worst of the Worst for Free Speech

WILLIAMSTOWN, MA - The stifling, repressive, backward educational environment at Williams College has again risen to national attention. This time a survey of free speech experts (mostly conservatives) rated Williams as among the worst of the worst for free speech.

RealClear Politics asked its 22 panelists for their opinions on which U.S. colleges and universities have the best climate for free speech, viewpoint diversity, and open inquiry. Likewise, they asked them to say which schools had the most room for improvement in these areas. Finally, we asked panelists to share their thoughts on how free speech, viewpoint diversity, and open inquiry relate to the proper mission of a university. (Click here todownload a full report on the RealClear Politics survey.)

Among the worst of the worst was Yale University which has shocked the nation with its politically correct nonsense including the ouster of a professor from his position as a college master, the contentious renaming of a residential building, and the removal or destruction of controversial artwork. Yale was followed by Harvard University, Williams College, Oberlin College, Liberty University, DePaul University, and Brown University among schools identified most often by the panelists as in need of improvement.

According to RealClear Politics, "Our panelists include professors, journalists, lawyers, and scholars who work in the areas of higher education or First Amendment law and policy." The group included a number of folks with practical experience covering or speaking at Williams College including Gregory Lukianoff – president, Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), Charles Murray – scholar, American Enterprise Institute, and Jennifer Kabbany – editor, The College Fix.

As Charles Murray, the co-author of The Bell Curve, said: “The telos of the university is truth. It cannot have a second telos. There is no such thing as a university that fully supports the search for truth and also pursues a social-justice agenda, for example — or, for that matter, also pursues a limited-government agenda.”

John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist and a former Williams College professor. He is an occasional contributor at American Thinker, Breitbart, Front Page, PJMedia and WND.

Fox News Alert

WILLIAMSTOWN, MA - Jonathan Butcher just posted a piece at the Fox News website criticizing the failure of Williams College to protect freedom of speech by adopting the Chicago principles.

Freedom of speech? Not allowed at politically correct liberal Williams College

He is alarmed about an article in The College Fix that reported one of biology professor Luana Maroja's colleagues had “threatened violence” if Williams adopted the Chicago statement. As Butcher writes:

No, Williams is not a public school. Its trustees and administrators have the right to set whatever campus policies they see fit. But considering how quickly the campus “conversation” on free speech escalated from a discussion of mutual respect to threats of violence, Williams’ students and faculty are right to ask: “Will I be threatened when I speak out on campus? And do I want to live in a place like that?”

Butcher's recommendation is the school require mandatory sessions on free speech during first year orientation – and "...explain that hiding from ideas with which you disagree is a poor strategy for life."

Jonathan Butcher is a senior policy analyst in The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Education Policy.