UVA Higher Ed Summit on Free Speech & Intellectual Diversity

Photo credit: Cal Cary, The Daily Progress

“There are best practices all over. There are organizations working with you, including leadership development with the Institute for Citizens & Scholars, to shine a bright light on examples of critical inquiry and civil discourse on campuses.”

-VIRGINIA GOV. GLENN YOUNGKIN

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, along with representatives from every public university in the Commonwealth and more than half of its private colleges, gathered at the University of Virginia on November 28, 2023 for the Higher Education Summit on Free Speech and Intellectual Diversity. Attendees shared ideas on how to support free speech and intellectual diversity on their respective campuses.

The convening coincides with the momentum of Institute for Citizens & Scholars’ Campus Call for Free Expression, a project of the College Presidents for Civic Preparednesss consortium, that is working to uphold critical inquiry and civic discourse in higher education. At the Summit, two participating presidents in our initiative, University of Richmond President Kevin Hallock and James Madison University President Jonathan Alger, spoke on a panel about their institution’s progress.

During the daylong event, Citizens & Scholars President Rajiv Vinnakota was also a panelist alongside representatives from the Constructive Dialogue Institute and the Heterodox Academy. The group spoke about efforts to promote dialogue and debate at other institutions.

Governor Youngkin encouraged higher education leaders to develop plans to protect free speech and viewpoint diversity more fully on their campuses. The drafts of those plans will be sent to the state’s secretary of education by March 1, 2024.

Watch Governor Younkin’s keynote address.

Read more about the event here.