Yale MacMillan Center and Freedom of Inquiry and Expression

The Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies exists to deepen understanding of the world in all of its complexity. In our role as Yale University’s international hub, each year we host hundreds of workshops and events on international topics, past and present. Every year, we also welcome hundreds of visiting academics, politicians, activists, postdocs, scholars, students, and others to campus. That inevitably means that, as part of this scholarly and educational mission, we will host events and invite some speakers and visitors whose positions may be very different from, and indeed opposed to, the views of many members of our own community here at Yale. 

We are governed in all that we do by the university’s commitment to free inquiry and expression. The reason for this commitment was stated very well in the Woodward Report on Freedom of Expression at Yale in 1974:

“The primary function of a university is to discover and disseminate knowledge by means of research and teaching. To fulfill this function a free interchange of ideas is necessary not only within its walls but with the world beyond as well. It follows that the university must do everything possible to ensure within it the fullest degree of intellectual freedom. The history of intellectual growth and discovery clearly demonstrates the need for unfettered freedom, the right to think the unthinkable, discuss the unmentionable, and challenge the unchallengeable. To curtail free expression strikes twice at intellectual freedom, for whoever deprives another of the right to state unpopular views necessarily also deprives others of the right to listen to those views.”

Yale’s policies vigorously support free expression and free inquiry, and also allow for the rights of community members to express their disagreements with the views being expressed, as long as this is done in a peaceable and non-disruptive manner.

For more information on Yale’s policies on free expression as well as the right to non-disruptive and peaceable protest, please visit the Office of the Secretary’s Freedom of Expression and Peaceable Assembly Guidance. The Yale College Undergraduate Policy on Free Expression also offers a description of the value of free speech, as well as our ethical responsibilities as members of the Yale community to treat others with respect.

We remind all members of the Yale community, as well as visitors and third parties, that Yale is committed to providing an environment free from discrimination, harassment and retaliation, which undermine Yale’s mission as well as its commitment to inclusion. Read Yale’s policy against discrimination and harassment.

Institutional Neutrality

In support of our goal of encouraging a wide range of opinions within our community, among whom there may be deep disagreements on international political issues, the MacMillan Center does not take its own institutional position on issues of the day.

August 2024