Democratic Confidence and Academic Freedom: Critical Reflections on Bérubé and Ruth’s It’s Not Free Speech

The current wave of criticism directed at universities lends greater urgency to questions about the limits of academic freedom. To explore these limits, I bring Michael Bérubé and Jennifer Ruth’s recent book It’s Not Free Speech into conversation with J. S. Mill. Bérubé and Ruth argue that universities must be empowered to dismiss certain far-right faculty, especially those who promote white supremacy. They propose letting universities sanction or dismiss faculty for what they say or write when it reflects either disciplinary incompetence or – in virtue of failing to “presume the equal dignity and value of all humans” – moral incompetence. I show that while Bérubé and Ruth offer a useful correction to a simplistic “Millian” theory of academic freedom, Mill shows us why universities should not sanction scholars merely for expressing views that a faculty committee judges morally incompetent.