Navigating Campus Controversies: Seeking Truth, Respecting Speech, and Cultivating Intellectual Fairness in Higher Education

In this essay, Rebecca M. Taylor and Ashley Floyd Kuntz explore the higher education aims of advancing truth, respecting speech, and fostering inclusive learning environments in the context of controversial invited speakers on college campuses. They consider the case of Charles Murray's visit to Middlebury College in 2017. They argue that intellectual fairness—which centers the importance of pursuing truth, combating bias, and supporting the intellectual development of members of the academic community—is an appropriate guiding virtue when navigating the intellectual and democratic aims of higher education. They look to advance intellectual fairness as a normative framework for understanding the aims and responsibilities of higher education institutions.