Explore the impact of state legislation on academic freedom, shared governance, curriculum and expression with guest Laura Benitez, senior manager, state policy and government affairs for U.S. Free Expression Programs at PEN America.

Episode Resources:

 * PEN America Index of Educational Gag Orders and Higher Education Restrictions [https://airtable.com/appg59iDuPhlLPPFp/shrtwubfBUo2tuHyO/tblZ40w5HLBuTK9vs/viw5lFPxKHGkamF0k]
 * Expanding the Web of Control: America’s Censored Campuses 2025 [https://pen.org/report/americas-censored-campuses-25-web-of-control/]
 * Snapshots of Censorship [https://pen.org/snapshots-of-censorship/]

How State Legislatures Are Reshaping Higher Education 

In this month’s episode, we explore higher education governance — a topic that has drawn increasing attention and controversy in recent years. Drs. Demetri Morgan and Raquel Rall, co-directors of the Center for Strategic and Inclusive Governance, join us to discuss the role of governing boards and their impact on higher education’s ever-evolving landscape.

Episode Resources:

 * CSIG Resource Hub [https://strategicinclusivegovernance.org/resource-hub/]
 * New national center supports higher education governance | UCR News | UC Riverside [https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2025/04/17/new-national-center-supports-higher-education-governance]
 * https://strategicinclusivegovernance.org/about-us/

How Governance Shapes Higher Education 

As schools of civic thought expand across campuses in the United States, debate continues over whether these centers foster open inquiry or advance particular ideological agendas. Christopher Tollefsen, professor of philosophy at the University of South Carolina and interim executive director of the Center for American Civic Leadership and Public Discourse, joins us to discuss what it means to be a good citizen and the responsibilities that requires.

Episode Resources:

 * Center for American Civic Leadership and Public Discourse - McCausland College of Arts and Sciences | University of South Carolina [https://sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/artsandsciences/centers_and_institutes/civic_leadership/]
 * Conservative(s) Teaching and Classroom Neutrality - Public Discourse [https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2025/06/98250/]
 * Heterodox Civic Center Reading Guide  [https://content.heterodoxacademy.org/uploads/CivicCenter_Reading-Guide_FINAL_2025-12-11-014021_jubx.pdf?utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_VlfKxts5EN2LFs9encG1p7qcqyBaQk-wIGzOtEDfncimzXX1NX-wThhLRy9sUvpD6bHoB9fkWYobxQR3GZtX8e8um5Q&_hsmi=393499489&utm_content=393499489&utm_source=hs_automation]

The Project of Civic Thought in Higher Education

This month we have the honor of talking with Shirley N. Weber, Ph.D., California Secretary of State, about voting, education and the future of democracy. Dr. Weber draws on both her lived experience and her storied career as an educator and national leader in expanding voter access to discuss barriers facing college student voters and the vital role higher education plays in cultivating civic responsibility. Her insights offer hope and practical steps for strengthening democracy in 2026 and beyond.

Episode Resources:

 * More official California voting locations and vote-by-mail ballot drop-off locations can be found at caearlyvoting.sos.ca.gov [http://caearlyvoting.sos.ca.gov] once the election gets closer. 
 * For more information on the upcoming election, visit vote.ca.gov [http://vote.ca.gov] 
 * To learn more about California’s college civic engagement efforts, visit California Students Vote Project [https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/castudentsvote] 

Voting and Education: The Only Way Forward

In the season five premiere of the SpeechMatters podcast, host Michelle Deutchman speaks with Center Co-chairs Howard Gillman, Chancellor of UC Irvine, and Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of Berkeley Law, about their upcoming book, Campus Speech and Academic Freedom: A Guide for Difficult Times. Against the backdrop of recent controversies — from legislative restrictions on teaching and campus protests to political pressure on colleges and universities — the episode explores how higher education leaders can navigate free speech, academic freedom and institutional governance in 2026. 

Resources:

 * Campus Speech and Academic Freedom [https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300270983/campus-speech-and-academic-freedom/] 
 * Opinion | Trump’s ‘Compact’ With Universities Is Just Extortion - The New York Times [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/opinion/trump-compact-universities-constitution.html]

Campus Speech and Academic Freedom, A Guide for Difficult Times

In the final episode of season four of the SpeechMatters podcast, guest host and former fellow Emerson Sykes of the ACLU sits down with UC Davis law professor and former fellow Brian Soucek to explore the idea of institutional neutrality in higher education and why neutrality may be a myth. Drawing on Soucek’s forthcoming book, “The Opinionated University,” the conversation examines whether universities can, or should remain neutral amid political polarization, how claims of neutrality can undermine academic freedom and what role administrators, faculty and students should play in shaping a university’s mission and values.

Episode Resources:

 * The Opinionated University: Academic Freedom, Diversity, and the Myth of Neutrality in American Higher Education, Soucek [https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/O/bo258248842.html]
 * Institutional Values, Academic Freedom, and the First Amendment | UC National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement [https://freespeechcenter.universityofcalifornia.edu/fellows-20-21/soucek-research/]


The Illusion of University Neutrality

What does it take to create a campus where open dialogue and inclusion thrive side by side? Guest host Alex Kappus talks with Caroline Mehl, the co-founder and executive director of the Constructive Dialogue Institute, about how higher education can model the kind of discourse democracy demands. Together they explore the social science behind constructive dialogue, what leaders can do to foster trust and why free expression remains essential to learning and civic life.

Episode Resources:

 * The Path Forward After Political Murder [https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-path-forward-after-political-murder] by Jonathan Haidt and Caroline Mehl, the Chronicle of Higher Education
 * Higher Education’s Role in a Polarized America [https://www.carnegiehighered.com/blog/higher-educations-role-in-polarized-america/]by Alex Kappus, Carnegie Blog
 * Building Cultures of Constructive Dialogue: A Blueprint for Campus Leaders [https://constructivedialogue.org/articles/building-cultures-of-constructive-dialogue/]


Building Campus Cultures for Constructive Dialogue

In this episode, constitutional law scholar Timothy Zick joins us to discuss how President Trump’s second term is testing our commitments to free expression and academic freedom. From the chilling of faculty speech to the fraught intersection of the First and Second Amendments, Zick examines how executive overreach is placing the nation’s core democratic freedoms under unprecedented strain.

Episode Resources

 * Thoughts on the First Substack [https://timzick.substack.com/]
 *  Trump 2.0: Executive Power and the First Amendment [https://firstamendmentwatch.org/deep-dive/trump-2-0-executive-power-and-the-first-amendment/]
 * “New Threats to Campus Protest” [https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5035039]


Trump 2.0: A Stress Test for the First Amendment

For this special Constitution Day episode, SpeechMatters is joined by Dr. Colleen Shogan, the former Archivist of the United States, to reflect on the enduring legacy of America’s founding documents. From the urgent need for a national “civics renaissance” to the risks of political interference in how we teach history, the conversation offers powerful insights into what it means to safeguard our democratic ideals in an era of polarization, misinformation and rapid technological change.

Episode Resources:

 * America needs a civic education moonshot, before it’s too late [https://thehill.com/opinion/education/5374502-america-needs-a-civic-education-moonshot-before-its-too-late/]
 * The Declaration of Independence | National Archives [https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration]
 * https://www.inpursuit.org/ 


“These Rights are Self-Evident, Not Self-Executing”

Politicians, professors and pundits all seem to be talking about viewpoint diversity, and questioning whether it is a robust part of college and university life. But what does viewpoint diversity mean and how do we evaluate if it is alive and well on campus? Jon Shields, professor of government at Claremont McKenna College, shares his take on why having a diversity of views in the classroom serves democracy and offers ideas for fostering a climate of open inquiry and intellectual pluralism.

Episode Resources:

 * "Closed Classrooms? An Analysis of College Syllabi on Contentious Issues, [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1L6aUnf3HZPqOTJrP8ee-m2Szh-uyFKZA/view?pli=1]" Working Paper Draft, July 10, 2025, with Yuval Avnur and Stephanie Muravchik
 * "Liberal Professors Can Rescue the GOP [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/23/opinion/conservative-college-students.html]," New York Times, 23 March 2023
 * “I’m a Conservative Professor Who Opposed Safe Spaces. I was Wrong. [https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/07/opinion/conservative-safe-spaces-college.html]” New York Times, 7 April 2022


Viewpoint Diversity in Higher Education

SpeechMatters is the official podcast of the University of California National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement. The podcast features thought leaders tackling the most pressing issues impacting free expression and democracy on campus, and beyond. Hosted by the Center’s Executive Director, Michelle Deutchman.