Ivy League is still struggling to figure out what's free speech – and what isn't. | Opinion
While a Brown University student journalist is enduring the third-degree for sending a polite email, students at other Ivy Leagues are getting away with much more.
Our country’s most esteemed institutions of higher learning – the Ivy League schools – should have figured out how to ensure free speech rights on campus long ago.
But they haven’t.
While these private institutions don’t have the same First Amendment requirements that public universities do, they promise their students and faculty a comparable environment where freedom of expression can flourish. Indeed, that’s a huge part of what a college education is all about.
That’s why it’s concerning to see such apparent confusion over what kind of behavior deserves punishment – and what should be accepted.
Brown University student Alex Shieh learned that the hard way. Earlier this year, Shieh decided to look into the university’s administrative bloat, given the high cost of tuition. Similarly, the Trump administration announced in April it planned to pull more than $500 million in funding from the university over its diversity, equity and inclusion bureaucracy.
As a journalist for an independent student newspaper, Shieh put together an interactive organizational chart, detailing what various administrators do. In addition, taking a cue from the Trump administration and its DOGE government efficiency efforts, Shieh sent emails in March to administrators, asking them basic questions about what their jobs entail.
That really ticked off university administrators, much like it did the federal employees who didn’t like getting emails from Tesla CEO Elon Musk, President Donald Trump’s right-hand man.
Brown acts against student reporter for asking questions
Brown administrators launched a weekslong review into his reporting, saying Shieh “emotionally harmed” university employees in his email, according to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).
In addition, they said Shieh accessed “confidential information,” even though they haven’t specified what that confidential information is.
Administrators also have charged him with “misrepresentation,” though he clearly identified himself and his publication in his email.
The pro-free speech FIRE sent Brown a letter demanding that the university drop the misrepresentation charge, among others.
Brown did throw out the misrepresentation charge. But rather than drop the investigation altogether, Brown proceeded to accuse Shieh of a trademark violation for using the name “Brown” in the paper’s name: The Brown Spectator. Shieh and other students worked to restart the publication this year after a 10-year hiatus.
FIRE wrote yet again to Brown administrators, telling them the trademark accusation misrepresents trademark law and violates the university’s free speech pledge.
“The Brown administration’s actions towards me are clear retaliation against me for my reporting,” Shieh said in a statement via FIRE. “The fact that open inquiry is not welcomed on this front shows that there is something to hide, and only heightens the importance that student journalists are allowed freedom of the press to uncover the truth, no matter how unsavory for the administration.”
As of this writing, disciplinary hearings for Shieh – and other members of the student paper – are ongoing.
Students at Columbia and Harvard get away with harassment
While Shieh is enduring the third-degree for sending a polite email, students at other Ivy Leagues are getting away with a whole lot more.
Columbia University saw yet another violent anti-Israel protest on May 7, with dozens of students taking over part of the main library (this is not free speech, by the way). Most wore masks and keffiyehs, shouting antisemitic slogans like “intifada revolution.”
The poor students who were in the library trying to study for upcoming exams were simply out of luck.
The police arrested many of the protesters. It’s the lackluster response to former protests, however, that allows such behavior to keep happening.
Pro-Hamas Columbia students took over a building a year ago, yet it wasn’t until this March – after the Trump administration threatened action – that university officials finally expelled and suspended some of the students involved.
That must happen much more swiftly this time.
At Harvard, where antisemitic protests have also been rampant, repercussions for violence are similarly lacking.
The Harvard Law Review recently awarded a $65,000 fellowship to graduate student Ibrahim Bharmal, who was charged with assault and battery of a Jewish student on the Harvard Business School campus, following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack on Israel.
The Trump administration is getting a lot of flak from the left for pushing against DEI programs and antisemitism at universities that take federal funding.
Yet, the twisted view of free speech at these Ivy League schools can’t be ignored.
Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at Paste BN. Contact her at ijacques@usatoday.com or on X: @Ingrid_Jacques