What’s The Stanford Effect?

Support FIRE today: https://www.thefire.org/donate

FIRE’s Alex Morey was quoted in the New York Times this year, talking about “the Stanford Effect” on college campuses. But what does “the Stanford Effect” mean?

It all started on March 9 when Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan of the Fifth Circuit was heckled at a Federalist Society event at Stanford Law. The hecklers were enabled and emboldened by Stanford administrators.

The shoutdown made national headlines and reignited the conversation about the role of free speech on college campuses.

Two days after the shoutdown, Stanford Law Dean Jenny Martinez and University President Marc Tessier-Lavigne apologized to Duncan for the university’s failure to uphold its own policies.

It didn’t go over well.

Following intense backlash, Dean Martinez doubled down in a 10-page tour-de-force on free speech in higher education and announced mandatory free speech training for students.

https://www.thefire.org/news/stanford...

Since Stanford Law’s stand for free speech on campuses, other colleges and universities across the country have followed suit in defending free expression.That same week, the Cornell Student Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution urging the admin to require content warnings before “triggering” material.

In response, Cornell’s President and Provost swiftly rejected the mandate. “Learning to engage with difficult and challenging ideas is a core part of a university education,” they wrote. A few days later, Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi released a video statement supporting “even speech that tests the limits of tolerance.”

In the wake of the Stanford controversy, have colleges and universities have become emboldened to reject the illiberal winds gusting over the past decade?

We hope so.