Former ACLU President Addresses Free Speech in Higher Education at NMU

Nadine Strossen, past president of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), will present “Free Speech and the Crisis of Higher Education: a Conversation with Nadine Strossen” at Northern Michigan University. The event is scheduled from 1-2:40 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 21, in 1320 John X. Jamrich Hall.

A leader at the forefront of constitutional law and civil liberties for decades, Strossen has testified before Congress on multiple occasions and addressed diverse audiences around the world through media commentary and presentations at more than 500 universities.

She was quoted most recently in an Oct. 23 New York Times story related to free speech titled “Professors in Trouble Over Protests Wonder if Academic Freedom Is Dying.” The section she is featured in reads:

“Academic freedom is not absolute. It does not protect ‘propagating wrongheaded ideas’ in teaching or research, said Nadine Strossen, a former head of the American Civil Liberties Union. And it does not put faculty members above the law or above campus rules meant to make sure protests, whatever their point of view, do not disrupt learning. But it means that academics are broadly allowed the First Amendment right to express opinions or to speak beyond their area of expertise outside the classroom, including on social media. Yet that is where many faculty members are getting into trouble, Ms. Strossen said.”

Strossen’s written works include HATE: Why We Should Resist it with Free Speech, Not Censorship and Free Speech: What Everyone Needs to Know. Her 1995 New York Times notable book, titled Defending Pornography: Free Speech, Sex, and the Fight for Women’s Rights, was recently republished as part of the New York University Press “Classic” series. She also participated in Free to Speak, a three-part Public Television documentary that examines controversies over free speech across nations and time.

Strossen is a senior fellow with the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, and the John Marsall Harlan II Professor of Law Emerita at New York Law School. She continues to serve on advisory boards for the ACLU, Academic Freedom Alliance, National Coalition Against Censorship and other organizations. She was commended for her service to the ACLU by U.S. Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Antonin Scalia and David Souter.

Named one of America’s “most influential lawyers” by the National Law Journal, Strossen has received many honorary degrees and awards, namely the American Bar Association’s prestigious Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award (2017) and the National Coalition Against Censorship’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Free Speech (2023).

Her presentation in Marquette is sponsored by the NMU English Department, the College of Arts and Sciences, and Hillel at NMU, along with Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, the Telos-Paul Piccone Institute, and Voices for Liberty. For more information, contact the Center for Academic and Intellectual Freedom at 906-227-1690.