The UNC Free Speech Alliance: A Conversation with a Founding Member

James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal ^ | January 31, 2022 | Jenna A. Robinson

[karpov]

Alumni have been making their voices heard over the past few months. After seeing the alarming direction that their alma maters are taking, alumni at institutions such as Davidson College, the University of Virginia, and Washington & Lee have decided to unite around the principles of free speech, academic freedom, and viewpoint diversity. These alumni groups aren’t working in isolation, they are part of a national organization called the Alumni Free Speech Alliance (AFSA).

UNC-Chapel Hill is the latest group to join AFSA. The UNC Free Speech Alliance is an alumni-led, independent organization dedicated to free speech, diversity of opinion, stimulating debate, and academic freedom on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus.

I recently spoke with Frank Hill, a founding member of the UNC Free Speech Alliance, to discuss the group’s mission and goals. This transcription has been edited for clarity and length.

Frank, tell me about the mission of the UNC Free Speech Alliance.

Well, I think the mission of it is trying to get back to the roots of what a university is supposed to be about already. I think the whole idea of a university is to have a free and open exchange of ideas from all sectors and try to use that so that we all learn something, and there’s been a move, we think, in the university system to frustrate some of that free exchange. And we hope that this alliance will help bring to light some of those tensions and also get the alumni involved to help make that happen.

[tsomer]

Aw shit.

I read it and signed up.
It’s going to cost me.

[PeterPrinciple]

The battle is fought on many fronts, this may be one of them.

[beef]

I went to Michigan, but my donations go to Hillsdale.