Correction appended. 

On Wednesday, Feb. 11, University President Frederick Lawrence held a town hall meeting on free expression, in which he addressed the issues of free speech that have recently put Brandeis in the national media spotlight.

The town hall began with a brief introduction from Provost Lisa Lynch, followed by a half-hour talk by Lawrence and a half-hour question-and-answer session. Lynch said that advancing free speech and free expression “is at the heart of what we do” as a liberal arts University. Lawrence, she added, is “one of the country’s leading experts on issues of free expression, civil rights and hate crimes.”

The most important question to understand, Lawrence said, was “why … we protect free expression at all.” He compared the views of two Supreme Court Justices—Louis Brandeis and Oliver Wendell Holmes—both experts on free speech who played a significant role in the way we think about free expression today.

Lawrence went on to discuss the importance of free speech on a University campus, stating that “a University exists for the very purpose” of having debates. The limits of free expression, Lawrence said, arise when debate reaches a level of extremity, such as verbal threats or assaults. However, he noted that it is hard to distinguish between act and expression, so a better approach is to “look at the intent of the speaker.”

“If the intent is to instill fear rather than debate,” Lawrence told the audience, then “the government should be involved in restricting expression.”

“To say that expression may not be prohibited doesn’t mean that it can’t be criticized,” Lawrence said. He proposed that the University must engage in real debates and dialogues in order to find “respectful ways to disagree” with differing viewpoints. The process of learning to engage and debate respectfully is “a challenge we ought to set for ourselves and for each other,” Lawrence said.

As the floor was opened for questions from the audience, Prof. Harry Mairson (COSI) was the first to stand up and address the “Concerned” listserv.

Mairson said that while he used to be “very active in academic politics,” he is no longer because he felt as if “fear was instilled in [him] by the administration.”

Mairson asked Lawrence about his public response to the released listserv correspondence, in which Lawrence wrote that “remarks by an extremely small cohort of Brandeis faculty members are abhorrent.” Mairson said he emailed Lawrence asking which statements he was referring to, considering that the listserv has been around for years, but Lawrence had not clarified. He asked Lawrence during the question-and-answer session to cite which comments he was referring to. Mairson also noted that Lawrence had written in his recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that “Brandeis University embraces those who stand with Israel.” Mairson questioned why the Brandeis mission statement or the University website did not also say this.

Lawrence responded first to Mairson’s comments about the “Concerned” listserv, stating that he did not mention specific faculty names or comments so as not to call anyone out. Furthermore, he said he did not want anyone to be punished for certain statements, but “statements that had a kind of vulgarity to them did not represent us as a University ... in the best light.” Lawrence said he received advice from many different sources on the best way to respond to the leaked comments, including those who said faculty members should be punished for the vulgar statements, but he believes his response was the most respectful way to express his views.

A senior student stood up to speak next and said that he had felt unwelcome at the University during the 2012 election because he supported a candidate that the majority of the school did not. In particular, the student noted, he felt uncomfortable in one of his classes when a professor criticized his political viewpoints. Lawrence responded that “no student should ever be made to feel unsafe to express their opinion” in the classroom or anywhere on campus. However, Lawrence noted that “part of the price of expressing opinions” is having people disagree with them, but that debate and respectful discussion in the classroom is the best way to solve these disagreements.

A second student addressed her concern with the school’s affiliation with conservative Jewish and Zionist donors, stating that she felt as if this “disrupts the mission of Brandeis” and limits the University’s commitment to social justice, as the school might try to placate donors and cater only to their views.

Lawrence responded that while it is the American Jewish community that has in part made the University possible, he is also aware that it can be a cause of tension. However, Lawrence said that all views must be balanced and that one must push back against those who might try to “silence” views that are unlike their own. “Students have an obligation to express themselves, and we have an obligation to protect that,” Lawrence said, but community members can resolve issues through “respectful disagreement.”

Another audience member noted that, unlike many other schools, Brandeis is not only harshly criticized in the media, but is seen by outsiders as being responsible for the speech of its students and professors. Lawrence agreed that the University gets “a kind of public scrutiny that many other Universities do not.” Lawrence also said that the media and the outside world has an “unhealthy level of interest” in what is happening on campus, citing specifically the Khadijah Lynch ’16 and Daniel Mael ’15 controversy that occurred in late December. Lawrence said that while the University cannot force the media to lose interest in on-campus affairs, the school can protect each and every student, which the rest of the world does not have a role in.

Finally, another senior stood up and addressed the “Light of Reason” dedication ceremony in the beginning of the year, at which several students took the opportunity to protest the University’s sexual assault policies. The student said that Lawrence has often been quoted as saying “we are not here to protect you, we are here to prepare you for the real world,” asking Lawrence if this was taken out of context and what he meant by it. Lawrence said that not only was the quote taken out of context, but it was misquoted—what he actually said was “we are not here to protect you from the world, we are here to prepare you for the world.”

Lawrence said that, at the dedication, he pointed at the gates of the University and said that they are not meant to keep the world out, but rather to take the issues of the world and bring them inside to prepare one for reality. “We are here to make you the kind of people who will change the world … you are being prepared not just for a job, but for a life,” Lawrence said.

Lawrence concluded by again discussing the importance of respectful debate. “Having this kind of a forum and context … and being able to talk about [these issues] is very important.” he said. “No one has the right to delegitimize anyone else’s views ... people aren’t going to agree with you...no one has the right to say you don’t have a right to express your opinion.” 

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Editor's Note: The town hall meeting took place on Feb. 11, not March 11, as the article previously stated.