Founders Day Reflection – Dean Klein

Speech delivered by Andrew Klein, Dean of Wake Forest University School of Law, at Founders Day on Feb. 20, 2025; remarks as prepared

Good afternoon. What a privilege, as a relative newcomer to Wake Forest, to stand in Wait Chapel with an opportunity to offer reflections on Founders Day. I was honored when President Wente asked me to speak – at least until I learned that she wanted me to make remarks on the topics of freedom of speech and academic freedom. Nothing like boss giving you an assignment on something that is uncontroversial and where everyone agrees! On the upside, I only have about 10 minutes. So, I won’t have time to get myself into too much trouble!

I do want to start by saying that I offer these reflections with great humility; people far more thoughtful than me have grappled with these concepts for decades without reaching anything close to consensus. Indeed, “freedom of speech” and “academic freedom” are concepts that are almost always invoked in difficult moments, when opinions clash and when people struggle to navigate conflict. Conflict is hard, and especially so at an institution with a mission of educating people who will live and lead in a democratic society, striving to be “for humanity.” 

Freedom of speech is undoubtedly important to all of that. Because in a democratic society, free speech is what allows us to engage in self-governance – in the words of one scholar, by “expressing our collective will through the force of public opinion.” The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects that type of participation by preventing the government from making laws that might punish, or even chill, speech that is at the core of our civic engagement, even when that speech expresses an unpopular opinion or view.  

For many of us, thinking deeply about free speech for the first time can be exhilarating. That certainly was true for me when I took a course on free speech as a journalism student at the University of Wisconsin back in the 1980s. I was attracted to the concept that the marketplace of ideas should be left to unfettered competition between all speech at all times.  

But in time, I realized that when it comes to speech, no one really supports “anything goes, all the time.” As Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes famously said, you can’t falsely shout fire in a crowded theatre, and there are numerous categories of speech that are routinely and appropriately prohibited and punished. There is no right to speak in a way that incites violence or in a manner that defames others. There is no protection for perjury or child pornography. Nor should there be. None of that is essential to engaging in the type of robust public debate that is at the heart of self-governance. So, even in a democracy, lines between protected and unprotected speech need to be drawn.

Freedom of speech is also different from academic freedom and, at least in my opinion, we should be careful not to conflate the two.

Perhaps most obviously, universities are not democracies! Universities are places where people pursue knowledge and discovery, and then transmit that knowledge through education. Universities discriminate against certain types of speech all the time. Academic freedom doesn’t mean that we have to tenure someone who writes that the earth is flat. It doesn’t prevent sanctioning a professor who is assigned to teach a class on constitutional law but instead exclusively discusses basketball. It doesn’t require us to tolerate harassment of those within our community. Rather, academic freedom allows us to pursue truth and knowledge by challenging conventional wisdom and old assumptions, protected from sanction by those who are threatened by that pursuit, for reasons of self-interest, fear, or ideology. So, in that sense, as others have noted, academic freedom in large part is an “instrumental good.” Unlike freedom of speech, it is not an element of human dignity, nor at the core of democratic principles. 

At some level, though, academic freedom and freedom of speech do intersect.  One of the reasons to seek knowledge and transmit it through education is the belief that “educated and well-informed citizens are important to preserving society and encouraging progress.” So, in democracies, one reason that universities have been valued is because their mission serves the public interest.

In this endeavor, institutions can differentiate themselves from others — and great universities can truly distinguish themselves. In my view, that is what we should commit to do on Founders Day. Let’s think about how Wake Forest can be a place where we embrace our pursuit of knowledge and truth in a way that is consistent with our motto of “Pro Humanitate” – with a promise to treat those around us with dignity and respect. Let’s think about how we can be true to the words of our mission statement where we assert that, since our founding in 1834, Wake Forest has been “an institution dedicated to providing a quality education to young people interested in using their knowledge and talents to better the world around them.”

I am pretty sure this has never been an easy task, but I do believe that today, more than ever, it is important to commit to doing so within the context of a set of shared values.  

These include academic tenets familiar to everyone here – ideals relating to the importance of a liberal arts education, developing an appreciation for moral and religious traditions, and utilizing knowledge in service of others.

Our shared values also include the way we treat one another – consciously choosing to be a community where we work harder to build bonds of understanding than to erect barriers of distrust; where we give grace instead of assigning blame; where we look for common ground and not just ways to prevail.  

At the beginning of my remarks, I noted that I am still a newcomer to Wake Forest. But one thing I have learned during my time here is that when reflecting on what makes Wake Forest special, you can’t go wrong by invoking Ed Wilson. (I never had the privilege of meeting Dr. Wilson; I wish I had.) As I finished writing the first draft of these remarks, I noticed on my shelf the summer alumni magazine with his portrait on the cover.When I opened it, I saw a quote that summed up almost all of what I have said today – but far more succinctly and eloquently. Ed Wilson said that he hoped Wake Forest would continue forever to be what it was when he first saw it more than 80 years ago:

“A place where reason, imagination and faith flourish, a place eternally and fearlessly in the pursuit of truth, a place which is open, hospitable, generous, loving, and free.”

I probably could have started there and saved everyone 10 minutes. But I truly appreciate the opportunity to share with you today. And I am very grateful for the privilege of being part of this institution and sharing this special community with all of you.