On Jan. 24 at Politics and Prose, University of California Davis School of Law professor Brian Soucek spoke to scholar Mary Anne Franks about his book, “The Opinionated University: Academic Freedom, Diversity, and the Myth of Neutrality in American Higher Education.” Throughout their conversation, Soucek challenged the concept of universities’ political neutrality, contending that institutions inherently express political values through their decisions and policies.
During the brief yet educational discussion, Soucek addressed ongoing debates regarding whether colleges and universities should take public positions on political and social issues. In a time of political turmoil inside and beyond the United States, Soucek explained, a university can never accurately represent the faculty as a whole, regardless of whether it addresses issues beyond its walls.
Many institutions, like Columbia University, have come under fire for their handling of political protests on campus.
This controversy, Soucek argues, is a key example of how universities exert far more influence through their actions than through official messaging. Decisions related to diversity initiatives, campus speech policies, institutional partnerships, scholarship programs and the naming of buildings all reflect value judgments that shape campus culture. Soucek points to Yale University’s renaming of Calhoun College to Grace Hopper College in 2017, following years of protest regarding its white supremacist namesake.
A key moment in the discussion came when Soucek referenced an incident involving deceased conservative commentator Charlie Kirk at UC Davis. Kirk was invited to speak on campus by a student organization, sparking public controversy and criticism of the university.
Soucek explained that the university was legally required to allow Kirk to speak under the First Amendment. However, this did not hinder the administration’s obligation to remain true to its values. In response to the event, the UC Davis chancellor released a video acknowledging the university’s legal responsibilities while condemning the rhetoric associated with Kirk that the chancellor described as harmful, particularly toward transgender students.
The university’s response ultimately altered the event’s dynamic. Rather than focusing on his usual talking points, Kirk devoted much of his speech to criticizing the chancellor’s remarks. Soucek described this as an example of “effective institutional counter-speech that shifted attention away from individual students and onto the university itself.”
“That took pressure off the people who would otherwise have had to respond themselves,” Soucek said.
Soucek argued that this example illustrates the central claim of “The Opinionated University” that universities already engage in political expression through their actions, regardless of whether they issue formal statements. By focusing narrowly on neutrality in speech, he said that institutions risk ignoring more consequential decisions involving funding priorities, hiring practices and academic partnerships.
Soucek referenced the University of Chicago’s 1967 Calvin Report, a foundational document often cited in discussions of institutional neutrality. The report argues that universities should generally refrain from taking positions on political and social issues, except when their core mission is directly threatened. Soucek noted that while many institutions invoke the report, few agree on what that mission entails.
“What I’m arguing is that the university’s mission is one of the most deeply contested questions out there,” Soucek said. Without a shared definition of that mission, he added, no institutional stance or silence can be truly neutral.
Soucek concluded by emphasizing that he was not advocating for a single model of institutional behavior. Rather, he called for greater transparency about universities’ value-driven choices and for them to openly debate their missions and responsibilities.
“The distraction is from the actions and from conversations about the mission, which is what universities really should be talking about,” Soucek said.
