A campus group at the University of Wyoming (UW) will host a panel discussion Tuesday about free speech on campus. The panel will discuss UW's new Statement of Principles.
The statement, which was published in December, declares the university's commitment to political neutrality and the free exchange of ideas.
It's a guiding document that leaves a lot open to interpretation. So a new campus group, Heterodox at UW, is hoping to map out some of the statement's specifics with a public panel discussion this week.
"This is a huge issue," said Catherine Johnson, a LeaRN Program assistant lecturer and campus co-chair for Heterodox. "And we just want to start the conversation, acknowledging that this event, in a sense, will definitely be incomplete. We want it to be the start of an ongoing conversation."
UW's Statement of Principles was endorsed by all corners of campus, but Johnson said the student government approved the principles only narrowly, by just one vote.
"It showed that people certainly have different perspectives on this," she said. "And so we feel like it really deserves some open, honest conversation that brings many different perspectives and voices into dialogue with one another."
Heterodox at UW, an affiliate of the national Heterodox Academy, emphasizes constructive disagreement and will kick off the panel discussion by highlighting its own guiding principles for how to talk to one another. Those include making one’s case with evidence, being intellectually charitable and humble, and being one’s self.
Heterodox Academy was founded by psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt, an academic who was worried about the underrepresentation of conservative views in university faculty departments.
The panel starts at 5 p.m. in Coe Library and will feature UW General Counsel Tara Evans, State Senator Chris Rothfuss, and Casey Frome from the College of Business.
