The Disinvited Dinner celebrates and affirms a culture of free speech and First Amendment principles, the importance and meaning of academic freedom, and the search for Truth by offering a platform to someone whose speech has been suppressed elsewhere.
George Will, 2018 Disinvited Dinner speaker
George Will served as editor for National Review from 1972 to 1978 and was a contributing editor at Newsweek. He currently writes a syndicated column for The Washington Post. He has been a contributor for ABC News, NBC News, MSNBC, and FOX News. He won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1977. He has written several books, including: Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball and Statecraft as Soulcraft.
He was born in Champaign, Illinois and earned a BA at Trinity College. He studied philosophy, politics, and economics at Oxford University and earned an MA and PhD in politics at Princeton University. He has taught at Michigan State University, the University of Toronto, and Harvard University. Dr. Will had the honor of being disinvited from Scripps College in 2014.
Necessity of free speech
First Amendment freedoms and a robust culture of support for them lie at the foundation of liberal democracy and especially the mission of higher education, which is teaching and pursuing Truth through intellectual excellence and freedom of inquiry.
Free speech challenged
On campuses across the country, however, university students and leaders often abridge this freedom. Pressure and threats from both the left and the right turn speaking engagements into disinvitations.
Photo: Middlebury College
Dozens of disinvitations
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education documents 43 disinvitations in 2016 alone. From Mumia Abu-Jamal to Ben Stein, from Jeff Sessions to Joe Biden, none seem safe from what Alexis de Tocqueville calls “the tyranny of the majority.”
Time and date
• Wednesday, May 2, 2018
• 6:00pm cocktails, 7:00pm dinner
• Madison Club, 5 E Wilson St, Madison, WI 53703
• $60/plate
Questions? Contact us at csld1776@gmail.com
Reporting on last year’s Disinvited Dinner
