Analyzing the Normative Grounds of Recent Calls for Greater "Intellectual" Diversity on Campus

• In Event: 66.074 - Polarization and Epistemic Divides

Abstract

With public opinion polls showing a growing portion conservatives lacking confidence in the academy, colleges are called to increase intellectual diversity on campus. This paper analyzes two recent cases where the merits and limits of a university’s commitment to “intellectual diversity” figures centrally: (1) a proposal at the University of North Carolina at Chapel for an Honor’s College to house conservative faculty and (2) the University of California, Berkeley uninviting Milo Yiannopoulus from a campus speaking engagement. Though both cases involve appeals to intellectual diversity, we argue that understanding the distinct principles academic freedom and free speech and their varying application to these cases should guide colleges in facing these types of scenarios.

Authors

• Rebecca M Taylor, Suffolk University

• Daniel P Gibboney Jr, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill