Campuses have increasingly become ground zero for the battle over speech. And while the First Amendment protects freedom of speech, press, assembly, petition and religion from government infringement, it faces limitations at private schools like Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. In a November opinion piece published in The Washington Post, the college’s then-president, Adam Falk, responded to criticism mainly from Congressional Republicans to resign for not allowing a self-described white supremacist to speak on campus. WAMC’s JD Allen spoke with the college’s Interim President Tiku Majumder, who took over this month.
The Board of Trustees chair heading the search to find a new president expects to land a candidate by mid-2018. The private college’s 17th president, Adam Falk, left to head the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.