Media Mentions

Press contact: Peter Bonilla, peter@mitfreespeech.org,  215-531-2171 (Eastern time).

2023

• Unlike peers, MIT’s president spared worst of blowback from antisemitism hearing, John Hilliard, The Boston Globe (Dec. 14, 2023)
• Harvard president to remain after anger over testimony on antisemitism, Hannah Natanson, Susan Svrluga, and Jack Stripling, The Washington Post, (Dec. 12, 2023)
• Harvard faculty, alumni fight for president as push for free speech grows, Hannah Natanson, Susan Svrluga, and Jack Stripling, The Washington Post, (Dec. 11, 2023)
• The ASA Should De-Recognize Groups that Deliberately Violate MIT’s Content-Neutral Policies: Even a laudably broad commitment to free speech would not shield against the consequences of violating the ASA’s bylaws, The Tech, Chad Qian (December 14, 2023).
• The Systemic Racism MIT Debate – Notes and Observations, Heterodox STEM, Luana Maroja (Dec. 3, 2023). 
• MIT Free Speech Alliance assembles a panel to debate whether STEM is systemically racist, The Tech, Russell Ismael (Nov. 30, 2023). 
• Two Years after Dorian Abbot’s Disinvitation, Alumni Conference Strikes a Hopeful Note on MIT’s Progress on Free Speech, Peter Bonilla, Hetorodox STEM (Nov. 19, 2023)
• Harvard confronts fear and division a month into Gaza conflict, WBUR.org, Max Larkin (November 9, 2023). 
• MIT debaters clash over whether STEM is ‘systemically racist’, The College Fix, David Glasser (November 6, 2023). 
• Reviving the Spirit of Free Inquiry, Glenn Loury (Oct. 22, 2023)
  
• Alumni groups ask Supreme Court to take up case challenging bias response teams, The College Fix, Jennifer Kabbany (September 25, 2023). 
• Denise Long video  on Fox with a shout-out to the MIT debate and AFSA.  Starts at 17:30. 
• Merit Over Identity: Dismantling DEI bureaucracies is the key to reviving American universities, The City Journal, Heather Mac Donald (April 11, 2023). 
• No DEI or better DEI?– MIT free speech advocates hold historic debate: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology hosted a historic debate on Apr. 4 that asked whether 'academic DEI programs should be abolished.' Both sides acknowledged DEI's shortcomings, with one participant arguing that 'College is not going to solve the academic skills gap' and another calling DEI 'a wolf in sheep's clothing,'  Shelby Kearns, Campus Reform (April 11, 2023). 
• MIT Debate on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Impacts Cornell, The Cornell Review (April 8, 2023). 
• ANALYSIS: Scholars say DEI is having a potentially disastrous impact on the hard sciences: Ahead of MIT's DEI debate, Heather Mac Donald and Patanjali Kambhampati sat down with the National Association of Scholars to describe how identity now trumps objectivity in science, Campus Reform, Shelby Kearns (April 6, 2023). 
• At MIT debate, DEI defenders concede diversity policies can make ‘things worse’, The College Fix, Maggie Kelly (April 6, 2023). 
• DEI - Diversity, Equity, Inclusion , https://zh.wenxuecity.com/myblog/ Frank’s blog (April 5, 2023). 
• I should have been on that panel! David E. Bray’s LinkedIn blog (April 5, 2023).
• MITDEI--", Redian News (April 6, 2023).
• VIDEO: Watch the Debate on DEI Policies in Higher Education at MIT:  A very important discussion,  Legal Insurrection blog,   Mike LaChance  (April 6, 2023).
• VIDEO: MIT Debate Preview with Heather MacDonald and Pat Kambhampati,  National Association of Scholars website (April 4, 2023). 
• Debate Over Abolishing DEI Programs to be Held at MIT: `In this heightened climate, it’s more important than ever that spaces be created for DEI issues to be debated from all sides, and for constructive, meaningful debate on the topic, to be modeled for other institutions,’ Legal Insurrection blog,   Mike LaChance  (March 31, 2023).
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion vs. Merit, Fairness, and Equality– Both sides of upcoming MIT debate weigh in, Campus Reform, Shelby Kearns,   (March 29, 2023).
• DEI scholars at prestigious university won't debate merits of DEI, The Blaze, Cortney Weil (March 24, 2023). 
• DEI Will Be Saved By Two Righteous Debaters, The Babbling Bear (Cornell) (March 25, 2023).
• A debate on DEI will be held at MIT. The university’s DEI deans refuse to participate, Jennifer Kabbany, The College Fix (March 24, 2023). 
• Students Protesting MIT’s New Free Speech Efforts Behind the Anti-LGBTQ Slurs Found on Campus, Legal Insurrection blog, Mike Lachance (March 6, 2023). 
• MIT Snowflakes Faked LGBT Slurs to Protest Free Speech on Campus, Headline USA, Jacob Bruns (March 3, 3023).
• MIT faculty ‘increasingly afraid to express their views,’ survey finds, Esther Wickham, The King’s College, February 3, 2023
• UPDATE: MIT faculty vote to adopt free expression statement, Alice Seeley, Campus Reform (January 13, 2023).

2022

• MIT Adopts Free Speech Resolution: We Cannot Prohibit Speech as Offensive or Injurious.  Jonathan Turley, Res Ipsa Loquitur blog (December 30, 2022)
• MIT faculty adopt free expression statement that protects ‘offensive’ speech, Jennifer Kabbany, The College Fix (December 29, 2022). 

• 'Simple incompetence': MIT alumni blocked from attending virtual speech,  Logan Dubil, Campus Reform,  (October 28, 2022).
• MIT poised to secure free expression on campus,   Michael B. Poliakoff AND Steven McGuire, The Boston Herald, October 12, 2022.

• MIT Asks Its Faculty to Endorse Free Speech: After the school’s 2021 disinvitation of a geophysicist, a university working group calls for needed reform, James Freeman, The Wall Street Journal (Sept. 28, 2022). 
• In the Fight for Free Speech, Courage is Contagious, Wenyuan Wu, Minding the Campus (Sept. 15, 2022).
• Proposal for revised statement on freedom of expression and academic expression released, Srinidhi Narayanan, The Tech, Sep. 8, 2022.

• The reopening of the American mind, Wenyuan Yu,  The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal,  August 10, 2022. 

• College alumni groups spread nationally to counter ‘cancel culture’,  Susan Svrluga, The Washington Post (July 24, 2022).

• Independent MIT alumni group receives $500,000 donation to promote free speech, Margaret Kelly, The College Fix, June 6, 2022. 

• Corporation might be replaced with MFSA, The Tech Student Union, Nonfungible Reporter, p. 2 (May 12, 2022).

•  "Free expression and academic freedom on campus are worth fighting for", MIT Free Speech Alliance, The Tech (February 17, 2022) 

2021

• "MIT cancels speaker over politics, so alumnus cancels donation in name of free speech", Corey Kendig, The College Fix.   (December 20,2021 )
• "MIT alumni angry that 'wokeness' is damaging school's quality, interview reveals",  Ben Zeisloft,  Campus Reform. December 9, 2021).
• "Fox interview" of Tom Hafer. December 7).
• "Alumni withhold donations, demand colleges enforce free speech", The Wall Street Journal. December 1).
• "What does MIT stand for? Faculty, alumni want answers", Komi German, Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. (December 1).
• "US academic free speech is worse than 50ish yr ago", Moshang USA podcast. (December 1).

• "Alumni town halls held to discuss freedom of expression and community at MIT", Kristina Chen, The Tech. (November 22).
• "MIT community rallies behind Chicago Statement after Dorian Abbot disinvitation",  Connor Murnane and Jordan Howell, Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. (November 10).

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