By Aaron Lighter
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
For much of his life, Phi Beta Kappa CEO Frederick M. Lawrence has been strongly advocating for free expression.
He brought those views to Towson University on Thursday, encouraging an estimated 100 students and faculty members to find common ground with their fellow Americans, even those with whom they disagree.
“If we have lost the ability in our time to say to others that we agree on everything except on our opinions, then we have lost something very precious and possibly irreplaceable,” Lawrence said. “The goal of finding a way through difficult conversations is precisely where we are when we talk about free speech.”
Lawrence called for what he described as “vigorous civility,” which he has defined as an attempt by two opposing sides of a political issue to find common ground without delegitimizing those opposing perspectives.
“I think civility has gotten a bad name in our time,” Lawrence said. “Civility is seen here as a placeholder for silencing other people or alternatively as something weak, soft.”
Lawrence, who has served as president of Brandeis University and dean of George Washington University Law School, said the goal of most universities should be to create an open atmosphere on campus so that all perspectives are welcome.
This goal is only possible, he said, if students and faculty members are “able to and encouraged to engage in free expression and free inquiry.”
Lawrence said speech that many consider to be offensive should also be protected at universities.
Referencing white nationalist Richard Spencer’s controversial appearance at the University of Florida in October 2017, Lawrence said students should counter racist speech with sound arguments rather than by interrupting the speaker.
In another case, Lawrence praised the administration of American University for its strong support of an African American student who was subject to racial attacks in 2017 after she was appointed student body president. In that case, Lawrence said, the administration rightly condemned those who had hung bananas in nooses on campus.
The event was held in Towson’s Harold J. Kaplan Concert Hall and was sponsored by Towson’s Albert S. Cook Library, the American Association of University Professors, the Center for Student Diversity and the Office of the President and Office of the Provost.