Does Cornell University Deserve Bill Maher’s Praise?
The Year of Freedom of Expression: The Evidence of Absence is Evidence
Dear Readers,
Greetings from Boston!
Courtney and I are gearing up for three weeks of screenings. We begin at Harvard (tomorrow) and Cornell (Thursday).
This month The Coddling of the American Mind movie will also be coming to Wake Forest, New York (for a special screening with Jonathan Haidt), Princeton, the University of Toronto, and Columbia.
(For more info on the East Coast leg of our Coddling Global Tour, check out this post.)
Today, I’m pleased to present a guest post from Cornell’s Randy Wayne—professor, tireless advocate for free speech, and our host for Thursday’s event.
Like so many elite universities, Cornell’s record on free speech is pretty lousy.
But things seemed to be looking up when President Martha Pollack took a stand against trigger warnings, an act of courage that earned her a special award from Bill Maher. She also declared this academic year to be the Year for Freedom of Expression.
Things must really be turning around at Cornell, right? Not exactly, says Wayne.
He’s expressed disappointment before:
The Cornell Theme Year for Freedom of Expression has nothing to do with either Freedom or Expression. Cornell’s Theme Year for Freedom of Expression is nothing but a ploy to commit logocide on those two beautiful words.
And today Wayne highlights some “evidence of absence” that he considers telling.
Enjoy!
All the best,
Ted
Carl Sagan, the late Cornell University astronomer, popularized the saying: the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. I want to amend this phrase for Cornell University’s Theme Year for Freedom of Expression to the evidence of absence is evidence. In fact, I will present an abundance of evidence of absence.
I had previously written about how the Dean of the Law School and the Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic had no interest in engaging with Matt Taibbi on First Amendment issues.
You would think that the Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic just might be interested in engaging with Greg Lukianoff, the CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression during the Theme Year for Freedom of Expression. On November 11, 2023, I wrote to the associate director of the Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic:
Dear Professor Hans,
I wanted you to know that Greg Lukianoff, the President of FIRE, and Rikki Schlott, the authors of The Canceling of the American Mind are coming to speak at Cornell on March 5 at 5:30 PM in Warren 175. I would like to invite you, and the other members of the First Amendment Clinic, to the event.
Thanks,
randy
I got no reply.
Could the lack of a reply have been what their funders wanted?
The funders include The Stanton Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Charles H. Revson Foundation, The Legal Clinic Fund, The Abrams Foundation, Democracy Fund, Heising-Simons Foundation, The Klarman Family Foundation, The Miami Foundation, and The late Ambassador William J. vanden Heuvel, JD’52. I doubt it.
Perhaps my email was just misplaced.
RELATED
On February 8, when I set a date with Ted and Courtney Balaker to screen The Coddling of the American Mind at Cornell University and to participate in a talkback with the filmmakers, I wrote to Dr. David Reetz, Director, Counseling and Psychological Services:
Dear David (if I may),
On April 11, I am bringing Ted and Courtney Balaker to Cornell to Screen their documentary film based on Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt’s bestselling book, The Coddling of the American Mind. There will be a talk back after the movie. I imagine that this might be of interest to all the people involved in counseling on campus. Please let me know if you think it is. Right now I have a room for 100 people booked, but an[sic] trying to get a larger room—and knowing if people interested in counseling would be interested in this film would help me gauge the size of the room I will need.
On another note, Greg Lukianoff will be here with Rikki Schlott on March 5th to talk about their book, The Canceling of the American Mind.
Please let me know if there would be any interest among your staff, and if so, would you help us promote the movie to them?
Thanks,
randy
No reply.
Hmmm, am I detecting a pattern? Could this be evidence of absence?
The inability to engage civilly and thoughtfully on important issues. After looking up David Reetz on Linked In, on February 9, I wrote again:
Dear David (if I may again),
I just read that you do standup comedy. You may already know, but the Balaker’s produced and directed “Can We Take a Joke,” which is currently streaming on Netflix. Greg Lukianoff was the Executive Director.
Thanks,
randy
By now you are probably guessing (correctly) that I got no response.
This may or may not be evidence of absence of an ability to engage civilly and thoughtfully on important issues; so on February 16, I replicated the experiment and wrote one last time:
Dear Dr. Reetz,
You must be having a busy week. I am checking once again to see if you think that the people working in mental health throughout the university would have an interest in seeing The Coddling of the American Mind?
Thanks,
randy
Again, no response.
This is certainly evidence of absence. And I infer that it is evidence of an absence of an ability to engage civilly and thoughtfully on important issues.
Could it be that the Cornell Administration is so into their promotion of microaggression awareness and bias reporting that the Director of Counseling and Psychological Services could not respond to me and present a reasoned argument why microaggression awareness and bias reporting are important for mentally healthy students?
Gad Saad, who will be speaking at Cornell University on April 9 and 10, warned that parasitic idea pathogens that lead to worry over microaggressions and bias reporting are spawned by universities, and eventually infect every aspect of our society.
I believe that parasitic idea pathogens have traveled down the hill to the progressive Ithaca community. On February 15, I wrote to Kari Burke, the Coordinator of Health Services and Wellness for the Ithaca City School District:
Dear Ms. Burke,
I am hosting a showing of The Coddling of the American Mind (see attached). It is a feature documentary based on the bestseller book by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt. I thought that maybe the people working in mental health in the school district may be interested in seeing the movie. There will also be a Q and A period with the filmmakers. Please let me know if you are interested in spreading the word on this so I might have an idea of how big a room I will need.
Thanks,
randy
No reply. Further evidence of absence? I tried one more time on March 18, 2024:
Dear Ms. Burke,
I wanted to remind you that I am hosting a showing of The Coddling of the American Mind (see attached) on April 11. It is a feature documentary based on the bestseller book by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt. I thought that maybe the people working in mental health in the school district may be interested in seeing the movie. There will also be a Q and A period with the filmmakers. Please spread the word about the showing to your colleagues.
Thanks,
randy
Thinking that it would be too much of a coincidence for all these emails to become lost in the ether, I consider the lack of response to be evidence of an absence of an ability to engage civilly and thoughtfully on important issues. Without any feedback from the mental health professionals, I also infer that the mental health professionals at Cornell University and in the Ithaca City School District are opposed to the views presented in The Coddling of the American Mind film.
But why?
I recommend that students, parents, teachers, and professors come see the screening of The Coddling of the American Mind to see:
What the mental health professionals in education would not like about the evidence and views presented in this movie; or
Why I think that it is so important for all people who want our students to be antifragile and free from anxiety and depression to see this movie.
If you think mental health professionals in education should see this movie, let them know and hold them accountable for their paradigms and inaction.