ASU launches free speech center to promote open dialogue

Arizona State University is establishing a new Center for Free Speech to encourage the uninhibited exchange of ideas.

Executive Vice Provost and Professor at ASU, Patrick Kenney, joined “Arizona Horizon” to discuss more about this new center.

With students from all 50 states and more than 150 countries, ASU’s students, alumni, faculty and staff come from every walk of life and hold a wide variety of beliefs and opinions.

“…one of our goals, among many, at the University,” Kenney said, “is to introduce students to a wide range of marketplace ideas, that they can think critically…have an example of all kinds of different speech.”

Just recently, ASU was recognized as a top school for free speech by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). It was also recognized by College Pulse in the latest College Free Speech Rankings. The university ranked 14th among the top 25 schools, ahead of Duke University and the University of Chicago.

“Students should be able to come to any university,” Kenney said, “…and be able to reach out, and be exposed to any number of concepts and ideas…they should be able to sample these different ideas about democracy.”

A gift to the university from Don and Leslie Budinger has resulted not only in the new center but also in a new signature initiative, the annual ASU Free Speech forum. The university will launch an annual free speech forum that will begin in Spring 2025.

The forum will engage students, faculty and the broader community and bring in national speakers on free speech.

“You can protest, you can speak your mind, you can have certain views…and you can hold em strongly,” Kenney said. “…you can do that throughout the day, but you can’t interrupt the rest of the business of the university.”