To the Editor:
Re “Who’s Really Limiting Free Speech?” (“On Campus” series, Op-Ed, Jan. 9):
I applaud my colleague Donald P. Moynihan’s critiques of the legislative interventions with university courses that have emerged in recent times. A critical aspect of academic freedom is the freedom of faculty and departments to choose what and how to teach. But he is wrong to play down the suffocating effects of identity politics activists and the forces of so-called political correctness.
Recently, activists disrupted—without sanction—a conservative speaker in a public forum at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and they have demanded that the administration disallow conservative speakers from appearing on campus.
Dissenting students tell me that they “shut up” in class out of fear of being targeted for harboring inappropriate views. And the evident lack of intellectual diversity fuels legislative disrespect in the first place. The University of Wisconsin is not alone in experiencing these and related problems.
Freedom of thought needs protection from threats left and right.
DONALD A. DOWNS
Madison, Wis.
The writer, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is the author of “Restoring Free Speech and Liberty on Campus.”
