U of C gets $100M donation to promote free expression, possibly largest ever supporting free speech

The University of Chicago has received a $100 million donation to support its year-old Chicago Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression to promote free speech on and off campus.

The university said the anonymous gift is likely the largest ever to promote free expression.

The university said the donation will help expand the work of the Chicago Forum, launched last year by university President Paul Alivisatos. The Chicago Forum aims "to promote the understanding, practice, and advancement of free and open discourse at UChicago and around the world," according to the university's announcement.

The university said the money will help the Forum expand its research, its fellowship program and invite more public thinkers to attend seminars to discuss their work with students. The donation will also support the Forum's orientation program for incoming students.

"This remarkable gift will create an enduring forum for this struggle," Alivisatos said in the announcement. "The Chicago Forum will allow us to significantly deepen this project here at the University of Chicago and will expand this important work on a much larger scale."

The gift was ridiculed by people involved in the encampment that highlighted abuses against Palestinians in the Israel-Hamas war until the tents were torn down by the university in the spring.

"It's truly a slap in the face," said Yousseff Hasweh, a U. of C. grad whose diploma was withheld by the university for two months, allegedly for his involvement in the protest.

"It's hypocritical to award the University of Chicago with any sort of free speech gift, or any award to insinuate the university promotes free expression, especially since they held my degree and put my life on hold — because I asserted my free speech," he said.

Hasweh said the large donation exposes an unfair "duality" concerning free speech.

"One gets awarded $100 million, and one gets arrested," he said.

Sabha Abour is an advocate for Palestinian rights who was a liaison at the encampment between the city and protesting students. She said she was pleased about the announcement to support free expression but said the university was hyprocritical in calling itself a leader of free speech just months after clearing out the encampment.

"Hopefully, this means no more diploma delays for students advocating for Palestinian rights ," said Abour, commenting on the alleged retaliatory efforts of the university against some students who participated in the encampment. Abour is also chief of staff for 4th Ward Ald. Lamont Robinson.

In a statement, the university said it "has been a leader on free expression since its founding, and this gift will provide long-term support for the work of faculty and students in strengthening and expanding that commitment.

"There is deep value in work that encourages genuine dialogue on campus, as we have seen with Chicago Forum events related to challenging issues like last year’s protest encampments," the statement continued. "University policies provide extremely wide latitude for protest activity and the expression of a wide range of viewpoints, while noting that it may not disrupt the ordinary activities of the University, harass or threaten others, or prevent others from expressing different views.”

At the time of the encampment, Alivisatos explained in a letter that the university tried to "provide the greatest leeway possible for free expression" but drew the line when that expression "disrupts study, scholarship, and free movement around campus." He gave that rationale before police cleared the encampment in May.

The university said the donation comes at a pivotal time during threats to free expression at U.S. universities and internationally. Over the last few years, pressure campaigns have forced some universities to cancel appearances of controversial speakers.

The university said it was excited to invite scholars "who are challenging an existing orthodoxy in their fields of study, or whose work may have faced suppression in their home countries."

"The intent is not to focus on controversial topics or lines of inquiry simply because they are controversial," forum Executive Director Tony Banout said in the announcement. "Rather, it is to learn from those who, in good faith and on an intellectually honest basis, thoughtfully question and challenge established dogma."