Free Speech
UChicago loves to claim a commitment to “free speech” and so-called “institutional neutrality”—but what does that commitment actually mean? We have seen time and time again that UChicago uses free speech principles and false neutrality as a cover for its ongoing racist policies of displacement, surveillance, and policing, and its investments in genocide. “Neutrality” to UChicago means, principally, aligning with a U.S. imperialist, capitalist, racist status quo. This past year, UChicago invoked “free speech” and “neutrality” to refuse to divest from Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza while simultaneously using its private police and disciplinary proceedings to penalize protest.
Let’s look back at this history:
In 1967, the 2-page Kalven Report was written in response to student protests against the Vietnam War. It maintains the University’s “neutrality” on political and social issues with two exceptions, (1) to address concerns about circumstances such as German universities during the Nazi rise to power, and (2) in relation to the function of the university as a corporation: “From time to time instances will arise in which the society, or segments of it, threaten the very mission of the university and its values of free inquiry. In such a crisis, it becomes the obligation of the university as an institution to oppose such measures and actively to defend its interests and its values.” and “In the exceptional instance, these corporate activities of the university may appear so incompatible with paramount social values as to require careful assessment of the consequences.”
UChicago used Kalven to refuse to divest apartheid South Africa in the 1980s, as well as the War on Darfur in Sudan in the 2000s, and today UChicago continues to refuse to divest from Israel and the weapons manufacturers arming Israel’s genocide against Palestinians. UChicago claims investments are neutral, but divestment is not.
Last year alone:
UCPD pepper-sprayed and attacked protestors at UChicago’s graduation, and arrested the parent of a graduate, after UChicago withheld students’ degrees over bullshit complaints by white nationalist professors. The complaints were against UCUP, but UChicago Admin attached names to the complaint, and refused to disclose the bases beyond saying generally that they included “social media”, “press,” and “identification.”
UChicago initiated disciplinary proceedings based on invasive UCPD surveillance including surveilling a person in the building where they live.
During the Palestine Solidarity Encampment, UCPD repeatedly targeted Black people in and around the encampment for arrest and harassment.
UChicago Admin ordered a raid on the Palestine Solidarity Encampment, attacking at 4:30 AM, storming the camp while people were asleep in their tents, throwing large objects including wood planks, metal chairs, fencing, art and the mock apartheid wall, throwing a person to the ground, and hitting another person in the chest. Hours after students were forced from the quad, UCPD threw final warnings to leave the encampment at students protesting on the public street as a threat-tactic, saying that otherwise they’d be subject to arrest and emergency interim leave of absence, which would mean loss of housing. UChicago also refused Legal Observers access to the quad. UChicago Admin congratulated themselves, stating the raid was “without incident.”
After the raid on the encampment, UCPD and security surveilled people on campus and repeatedly profiled Palestinian, Muslim, Black and Brown students and people wearing keffiyehs, stopping them on campus and trying to ask them questions.
UChicago pursued disciplinary proceedings against SJP 3 times. The law school initiated disciplinary proceedings repeatedly against NLG, including for abbreviating their organization name on pro-Palestine leaflets to “NLG” instead of writing out “National Lawyers Guild.” The org was sanctioned for a “Free Palestine” banner and forced to get prior approval before posting any kind of speech on campus.
UChicago president Paul Alivisatos and admin refused to say “Palestine” in any communications and repeatedly refused to meet with pro-Palestine students—instead arresting 26 students and 2 faculty observers last November at a sit-in. Students went through MONTHS of disciplinary proceedings.
During negotiations during the UChicago Palestine Solidarity Encampment, President Paul refused to say the word “Palestine” and refused to even acknowledge the destruction of universities in Gaza. And he used “neutrality” as a reason for ending negotiations and ordering a brutal raid on the encampment. Yet he had no problem making statements and programs to support students and scholars impacted by the war in Ukraine.
Previously, UChicago used UCPD to violently attack and repress protestors demanding the reopening of an adult trauma center. And in summer 2020, when #CareNotCops staged a sit-in at UCPD Headquarters demanding the defunding of UCPD, UCPD cut them off from any outside food or resources. During the 2022 Alumni Weekend, South Side community organizers and U of C student organizers disrupted Paul Alisavatos’s speech by protesting the event and demanding reparations from the university. The University called in UCPD, locked the doors to the building, and physically blocked the participants from the event.
Meanwhile, UChicago has repeatedly used its “free speech” principles to platform racist, zionist, white nationalist speakers and professors. As you look at this history - let this guide prompt you: whose speech is really protected? And as the university tries to make everything a debate about “speech” and “neutrality”, how do we go about rejecting these false framings as what they are—methods of trying to neutralize dissent and contain challenges to the UChicago corporation?
