Lev Lesokhin

Just under a year since @mitfreespeech held a debate on this exact topic at #MIT mitfreespeech.org/2023_academic_…

@GeorgeMayer Best laptop mouse ever!

Remember when someone thought this was a good idea for a mouse?

Next Thursday, we're co-hosting a debate on the issue of systemic racism in STEM. We're thrilled to bring this accomplished team of professors and practitioners together for what promises to be a great discussion. To attend, register here: members.mitfreespeech.org/Calendar/morei…

whyevolutionistrue.com/2023/11/01/deb… Tomorrow 8 pm Eastern time. I've included the YouTube link.

Some of us had a chance to hear Sally Kornbluth last night in NYC at the presidential tour organized by @MIT_alumni. Sally touched on the current turmoil on campus. She went into more detail in our all-hands meeting last week members.mitfreespeech.org/video/individu… ; membership is free!

The guest speaker for our final all-hands member meeting of the year is @MIT President Sally Kornbluth! We're excited to bring her our #freespeech questions and for what promises to be a great conversation. We hope you'll join us on October 19. members.mitfreespeech.org/Calendar/morei…

Our first annual conference was a success! Great keynote from @GlennLoury and discussions with #MIT and #Harvard students, numerous MIT profs, and leaders from @afsaalumni and sister organizations. mitfreespeech.org/mfsa_2023_conf…

President Sally Kornbluth will be in our next all-hands meeting on Oct 19, 7:30pm, discussing @MIT's progress on #freeexpression and taking questions from MFSA members. Membership is free for all. Join us! members.mitfreespeech.org/Calendar/morei…

A lot of good advice to incoming students from Denison U. president Adam Weinberg, especially this:

Another finding from the @NDSUBusiness's recently completed survey of college students ndsu.edu/fileadmin/chal…. The majority of students feel they should report comments they find offensive to the university. Is that an inhibitor to #freedomofspeech on US campuses?

In more lighthearted MIT-related fare, the family of the late Charles Stark Draper, namesake of the Cambridge engineering nonprofit, spent two years restoring the lab's famed mannequin, with hidden drinks compartment, gifted to Draper by his engineers. bostonglobe.com/2023/08/28/met…

This week, our friends at @CUFreeSpeech released a comprehensive report outlining recommendations to improve the climate for #FreeSpeech at Cornell University. Bravo to them--we hope it's widely read and given its due consideration. cornellfreespeech.com/sites/default/…

An oldie but goodie - the speech by Rowan Atkinson @OfficalMrBean more than 10 years ago about the importance of #freedomofspeech. So well-articulated youtube.com/watch?v=BiqDZl…. Note the wall behind him - "feel free to insult me".

The last thing we want is for college to turn into a safe space!

An important initiative from @ctzns_schlrs enlisting 13 university presidents in promoting & defending #freespeech. It's encouraging to see more university presidents across the country putting themselves on the line for this issue. We hope it continues. apnews.com/article/free-s…

Are mandatory #DEI statements for university employees a form of compelled speech? @conor64 covers this issue in @TheAtlantic buff.ly/3pNR1Ia. Explore the tension between forced DEI and #FreedomOfSpeech at colleges in our debate held at @MIT - buff.ly/3z9rytR.

Kids are even more worried about being cancelled than adults, says @PDeniseLong buff.ly/3Q3IHPr, discussing what we can do to enable students to address these fears during our April #DEI debate. More on our April debate: buff.ly/3z9rytR.

ICYMI, @PDeniseLong recently appeared on @LawrenceBJones3 Cross Country for a discussion of corporate DEI initiatives, highlighting her participation in our April DEI debate. (youtube.com/watch?v=DqRKZj…). Thanks for the shoutout! For more on the debate, see mitfreespeech.org/2023-debate

We hosted a debate at @MIT on academic DEI programs. The difference between Equity and Equality buff.ly/3K00fYV came up. We encourage you to check out the whole debate buff.ly/3z9rytR to hear @KarithFoster, @PDeniseLong, @KambhampatiPat and @HMDatMI debate DEI.

From a longer feature recalling a 1949 volume of collected writings on intellectual freedom, a nice reminder of former @MIT President James Rhyne Killian's refusal to bow to pressure to remove suspected communists, made very early in his tenure. quillette.com/2023/07/30/wha…