The Academic Freedom Podcast

The Opinionated University: A Conversation with Brian Soucek

Keith Whittington is joined by Brian Soucek, the Martin Luther King J. Professor of Law at the University of California at Davis School of Law and a member of the American Association of University Professors’ Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure. They discuss his recent book, The Opinionated University: Academic Freedom, Diversity, and the Myth of Neutrality in American Higher Education. They discuss diversity initiatives at American universities, institutional speech by academic departments and universities, and their relation to academic freedom and the mission of the university.

On the Trump Administration's Higher Education Compact

Keith Whittington is joined by Genevieve Lakier, professor of law and Herbert and Marjorie Fried Teaching Scholar at the University of Chicago. They discuss the Trump Administration's approach to higher education reform, particularly its recent Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education, a proposal that would grant access to federal funds in exchange for agreeing to certain demands. Lakier recently wrote a blog post on the Compact as it relates to the unconstitutional conditions doctrine. Whittington also published a recent op-ed in The Dispatch on problems with the Compact and signed a joint statement on the matter with other professors.

Should the Government Tax University Endowments?

Featuring Brian Galle, the Agnes Williams Sesquicentennial Professor of Tax Policy at Georgetown University Law Center, an expert on taxation and nonprofits. Galle recently served as a senior fellow in the division of corporation finance at the Securities and Exchange Commission. He joins us to talk about the proposed tax on university endowments now making its way through Congress. The Republican House Ways & Means Committee issued a press release proclaiming that their bill “holds woke, elite universities that operate like major corporations . . . accountable.” What is the endowment tax and what is its significance for the future of higher education? - 6/11/25

Can the Government Block Student Visas Over Campus Speech?

Keith Whittington is joined by Eugene Volokh, the Thomas M. Siebel Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He is the author, among other works, of the textbook, The First Amendment and Related Statutes. On May 22, the Department of Homeland Security announced that Harvard University has lost its certification to participate in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program. As a consequence, international students enrolled at Harvard University will no longer be given student visas. Volokh and Whittington discuss what the administration has done and what constitutional questions it raises. - 5/29/25

On Withholding Federal Grants to Universities

Keith Whittington interviews Cass Sunstein, the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School, whose scholarly interests include free speech, constitutional law, and administrative law. He recently authored a paper, “Our Money or Your Life!’ Higher Education and the First Amendment,” available here, which explores the First Amendment constraints of federal funding to American universities. Sunstein helps unpack the legal and constitutional questions raised by the Trump administration's strategy of withholding federal grants from schools like Columbia and Harvard to force internal policy reforms. - 5/27/25

On Trump's Threat to Harvard’s Tax Exempt Status

Keith Whittington sits down with Daniel Hemel, professor of law at New York University Law School, with an expertise in taxation, nonprofit organizations, and constitutional law. They discuss the Trump administration’s threat to strip Harvard University of its tax-exempt status and the implications of the tax code for the workings of American universities. - 5/21/25

On Columbia University and the Trump Administration

Keith Whittington is joined by David Cole, the Honorable George J. Mitchell Professor in Law and Public Policy at Georgetown University Law Center. He is also the former National Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union. This episode focuses on the recent “Statement from Constitutional Law Scholars on Columbia,” of which Professor Cole was a lead author. That statement was published on the website of the New York Review of Books, and was signed by an ideologically diverse group of 18 scholars ranging from Steven Calabresi and Eugene Volokh to Erwin Chemerinsky and Pam Karlan. Keith Whittington also signed the statement. - 3/26/25

On the Boundaries of Faculty Free Speech

The AFA's Keith Whittington sits down with Michael Berube and Jennifer Ruth to discuss their recent book, It’s Not Free Speech: Race, Democracy, and the Future of Academic Freedom. Michael is the Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Literature at Pennsylvania State University. Jennifer is a professor of film at Portland State University. He is the author of such books as What’s Liberal about the Liberal Arts? Classroom Politics and Bias in Higher Education, and she is the co-editor of the recent book, The Right to Learn: Resisting the Right-Wing Attack on Academic Freedom. They both served as members of Committee A on academic freedom at the American Association of University Professors. - 2/14/25

Timothy Zick on Public Protests and the Law

Keith Whittington sits down with Timothy Zick, the John Marshall Professor of Government and Citizenship at William & Mary Law School and a leading expert on the First Amendment law surrounding protest activities. His first book was Speech Out of Doors: Preserving First Amendment Liberties in Public Places, which was published in 2009. His latest book was published by Cambridge University Press and is Managed Dissent: The Law of Public Protests. They discuss the law of public protests in general and the specific situation of protest activities on college campuses. - 1/9/25

A Conversation with Professor Cary Nelson

The AFA's Keith Whittington interviews Cary Nelson, the Jubilee Professor of Liberal Arts & Sciences Emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He served for many years in the leadership of the American Association of University Professors, including terms as its president from 2006 to 2012. He is currently chair of a new organization, the Alliance for Academic Freedom, not to be confused with the Academic Freedom Alliance. In addition to his work on American poetry, he is the author of several books on higher education, including Manifesto of a Tenured Radical from 1997 and No University is an Island from 2010. His latest book is the just published Hate Speech and Academic Freedom: The Antisemitic Assault on Basic Principles. - 12/10/24