Note to editors:
We are grateful to John Wilson for his participation in our book in “Book Review: Campus Speech and Academic Freedom” (February 2, 2026). But we believe it is important to correct his characterization of our position on the meaning and scope of academic freedom.
Mr. Wilson claims that it is our view that “professors who mention personal political views in class or research are automatically bad teachers and bad scholars.” This is a gross misstatement of the position we take in the book.
Indeed, we discussed extensively how teachers in professional settings cannot be expected not to take political stances. We note that, to its credit, the University of California in 2003 abandoned its longstanding requirement that faculty remain “neutral” and “cool” when exercising academic freedom.
We believe that “teachers can hold strong opinions and yet act in accordance with the highest professional standards.” We emphasize that “it is not possible to hold faculty experts free from political views,” while adding that “they can be asked to limit the views they express in the classroom to those that are academically sound and closely relevant, and to create a space in the classroom where other legitimate positions can be expressed.”
We acknowledge that this “requires difficult judgments about when public opinion evolves into unethical political indoctrination”—which is why we then illustrate these judgments through several case studies.
Mr. Wilson’s point is that “professors who fail to do their jobs and fail to teach politics instead of class topics will still be punished, but only for failing to do their jobs and not for simply mentioning politics.” We agree.
We welcome the opportunity to correct the record and look forward to Mr. Wilson’s continued engagement with other aspects of the book’s arguments.
