Georgetown Should Honor Its Commitment to Free Speech

The latest conflict between Georgetown's commitment to free speech and its Catholic identity has thrust the university into the news again. Just weeks ago, Representative Paul Ryan's appearance at Georgetown was challenged by critics, and this month's conflict involves Georgetown's invitation to Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), to speak at a commencement event on Friday. Critics say that as a Catholic university, Georgetown should not have invited Sebelius, a noted proponent of the recent controversial rule about religious institutions and insurance coverage for contraception. (Indeed, some Catholic colleges are currently suing Sebelius over that recent HHS mandate.)

In a public statement about the controversy this week, Georgetown President John J. DeGioia cited Georgetown's commitment to the free exchange of ideas as a reason to honor Sebelius' invitation:

We are a university, committed to the free exchange of ideas. We are a community that draws inspiration from a religious tradition that provides us with an intellectual, moral, and spiritual foundation. By engaging these values we become the University we are meant to be.

Indeed, Georgetown advertises itself as dedicated to freedom of expression:

[A]ll members of the Georgetown University academic community, which comprises students, faculty and administrators, enjoy the right to freedom of speech and expression. This freedom includes the right to express points of view on the widest range of public and private concerns and to engage in the robust expression of ideas.

"Free speech" is central to the life of the university. ... The long and short of the matter is that "time, place and manner" are the only norms allowable in governing the expression of ideas and sharing of information that is the very life of the university.

A university is many things but central to its being is discourse, discussion, debate: the untrammeled expression of ideas and information.

This is an unequivocal policy in favor of free speech at Georgetown. As a private Catholic university, Georgetown has the right to clearly state, if it so desires, that it is Catholic and that its Catholic values trump free speech and equal treatment. Yet, Georgetown has generally done the opposite, promising free speech as a core university value.

But why, then, despite its commitment to free expression, has the university refused to provide equal rights to H*yas for Choice, a pro-choice student organization that seeks the same access to university resources (besides the right to use the word "Hoyas" without an asterisk) that other student organizations enjoy? My organization, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), wrote to Georgetown three times to try to convince it to follow its own promises regarding free speech with regard to H*yas for Choice. Georgetown only responded once, writing that the university valued free speech but could not give equal treatment to a group in conflict with "Catholic moral teaching." When FIRE responded, pointing out that Georgetown's policy specifically says that "'time, place and manner' are the only norms allowable in governing the expression of ideas and sharing of information that is the very life of the university" (emphasis added), this appeal to Georgetown's own stated commitment was met with silence.

So, what does Georgetown really stand for? Rather than keep us all in the dark, Georgetown should finally come clean. Georgetown's continuing attempt to have it both ways when it comes to respecting freedom of expression can only earn it more bad press.

 

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Comments

[Donald Kinge]

07:04 PM on 05/17/2012

It's unfortunate when a university - the supposed place for the free flow of ideas - is no longer open to the free flow of ideas. Knowledge is generated when you challenge accepted norms. Knowledge is advanced when you do actually debate and push the envelope - whether that is in the area of theoretical physics or the interpretation of Mark Twain. Either way, a university should be open to dialogue and discussion. Shutting down free speech because religion gets in the way does nothing to promote education. It stifles creativity and makes the university the antithesis of all it seeks to be.

[viciousvirago]

02:11 PM on 05/17/2012

I went to Georgetown for my bs in pre-med and I always found it to be liberating. All the speakers that gave speeches were interesting and did not necessarily take the Catholic way. But that was the 70's and I'm sure it's become more NON politically correct since.

[phal4875]

05:26 PM on 05/17/2012

Fanned. I used to tend to think that we are becoming more liberal as time goes on, but I think you are right. This does not seem to be as liberal a time as I recall during my college years in the late 1960s.

[viciousvirago]

07:19 PM on 05/17/2012

Oh the sixties were definitely LIBERAL AS HELL. I was in high school at Madeira in Virginia and we weren't even allowed to read the newspapers. Some girls rebelled by hiking their skirts up above the KNEES. Oh, the horror.

Today, everyone is expected to be politically correct and toe the line when it comes to denigrating anyone NOT white. Bullsh*t. I call it like I see it. I've earned the right as a former trauma surgeon in Iraq and come from four generations of Army surgeons who operated in combat zones. If anyone gets to tell the truth, I do damnit.

Sorry. My new medicine is kicking in and I'm high as a kite, but the pain is gone. I have to act better in front of my son who's going into the Rangers (REALLY not politically correct). After med school, that is.

Did you go to Georgetown?