Free speech panel discussion slated Thursday at DePauw

Free speech will be the topic for a Thursday, Oct. 4 panel discussion in Watson Forum of the Pulliam Center for Contemporary Media at DePauw University.

The program, “Taking Offense: Free Speech, Safe Spaces and Campus Conversations,” is scheduled for 6:45-7:45 p.m. at the Media Center, 609 S. Locust St., Greencastle.

The discussion is free and open to the public.

Scheduled to participate are DePauw Professor of Communication Studies Jeffrey McCall; DePauw President Mark McCoy; Cameron Okeke, research analyst, Justice Policy Center, the Urban Institute; and Miranda Spivack, independent journalist and former Eugene S. Pulliam Center distinguished professor of journalism at DePauw.

Serving as moderator will be Deborah Douglas, the current Eugene S. Pulliam Center distinguished visiting professor of journalism at DePauw.

The First Amendment has long been considered a shield for those who espouse provocative ideas. Now, in the age of Milos Yiannopoulos, Antifa and others, voices on both sides of the political spectrum are calling for limits to “hate” speech that threatens a sense of emotional security.

Indeed, a recent Gallup-Knight Foundation survey found that college students support an open learning environment, but increasingly favor limits on offensive speech. Panelists will consider what is an appropriate balance between those competing values.