PEN America, a group of literary writers and editors, is the latest professional association to weigh in on the ongoing debate over whether campus efforts to promote inclusivity and diversity are impairing free speech.
The debate thus far has engendered passionate arguments from both sides; the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education and the American Association of University Professors, for example, have argued that universities’ interpretations of federal legislation against gender discrimination at times threaten academic freedom. Groups including Faculty Against Rape, meanwhile, have pushed back, saying such arguments pit faculty interests against students’, with negative implications for educational access.
