Milliken-Gillman-Chermerinsky on Free Speech and Academic Freedom Issues

The UC National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement sponsored a webinar-conversation on free speech and academic freedom on April 22, featuring UC President Milliken, UC-Irvine Chancellor Howard Gillman, and Berkeley law school dean Erwin Chermerinsky. The three speakers were introduced by Center director Michelle Deutchman.

Below you can find an audio link to the program. The tendency was to focus on legal issues and the distinction between free speech and academic freedom. Yours truly would have preferred more emphasis on higher education values - not legal rights - of knowing what you are talking about before opining. But that's just me.

The one area of controversy that surfaced is the use of departmental political statements. Gillman indicated some reservation about where the Regents wound up on that issue, i.e., banning such statements if they appeared on the landing page of a department's website. He suggested that he would have gone further because such statements may impinge on the freedom of minority views. Milliken indicated that the issue might be revisited in the future. You can hear that exchange at the link below:

The entire one-hour event can be heard at:

https://ia801506.us.archive.org/0/items/newsom-03-04-2026/Milliken-Gillman-Chermerinsky%20free%20speech%204-22-2026.mp4. The excerpt above occurs around minute 27.