The Founding of Open Discourse Coalition
Our founding of the Open Discourse Coalition is not our first involvement with efforts to expand the marketplace of ideas at Bucknell. When we were students two decades ago, senior administrators attempted to destroy a newspaper for which we all wrote, defunded a lecturer we invited, and threatened one of us with expulsion, all in clear retaliation for our advocacy. We vigorously and publicly called for a change in course because these actions were in violation of Bucknell’s stated mission and values—they devalued the educational experience not just for us but for our fellow students. Around the time we graduated, however, a new university president set a different tone, allowing student newspapers of all stripes to publish unimpeded and inviting speakers from all points of view.
More recently, we heard about the work of the faculty members informally associated with what is now known as the Bucknell Program for American Leadership (BPAL). As we learned about BPAL, we were inspired by the work of these faculty members—and alarmed by how the campus environment has degraded since we graduated. While there were tough moments when we were students, we never heard demands for faculty members to be fired for inviting speakers with whom others disagreed, worst of all with those demands enabled by fellow faculty and senior administrators, nor was it commonplace for students to feel the need to write newspaper articles anonymously. But these are just two of the troubling developments we have seen in recent years
A watershed moment came in August 2019 when we attended a meeting on campus initiated by a Bucknell donor, now an Advisory Board member of Open Discourse Coalition, in support of BPAL. In that meeting, we watched as dozens of other alumni heard directly from the faculty leaders of BPAL about the campus environment. Their alarm as they came to terms with these realities, which we had already experienced through our budding association with the BPAL faculty, was palpable. At the end of the meeting, it was expected that Bucknell would grant official recognition to BPAL as an on-campus entity by the end of the year. This was an essential step because BPAL began as an informal confederation of faculty, without any real authority to control funds, hire staff, or govern itself.
We hoped that BPAL would soon be properly recognized. At the same time, we were highly disturbed by what we heard that day and began discussing what we should do. We did two things simultaneously: first, some of us joined with other alumni to donate to the university, through official channels, to keep BPAL’s work going; second, given our concerns, we began the process of creating an independent 501(c)(3) that could serve as an organizing and funding hub for these essential activities, if necessary.
Confirming our fears, BPAL’s position worsened quickly. In the end, over a year after the meeting with BPAL professors and the administration, President Bravman declined to grant the promised recognition. Other bureaucratic hurdles followed, making it impossible for BPAL to do business.
We then informed the faculty members involved that we had created a mechanism to help them—the Open Discourse Coalition, an independent nonprofit that could support people and programming in furtherance of open discourse on Bucknell’s campus.
We have taken all of these actions of our own avail, in love to our alma mater and in service to her students. We chose the name Open Discourse Coalition to send a clear message about our purpose—we seek open discourse on contested questions. We are not here to convince anyone of a particular political viewpoint or to prove others wrong, but rather to present a variety of viewpoints and foster discussion. This value is at the heart of a truly liberal education. By remedying its lack, we support Bucknell students.
Since November 2020, we have discovered that many Bucknell alumni who share our concerns have walked away from our alma mater. Happily, many are returning to the fold now because they see the positive movement our organization is producing.
As we close this letter, please permit us a quick study in contrasts, which illustrates why we are so passionate about this work.
When we were students, we brought many speakers to campus. The most memorable was the late writer Christopher Hitchens, but the most expensive was actor Ben Stein, who packed the Weis Center. When we requested funding from the student government for Ben Stein’s lecture, the vote was overwhelmingly positive. But when one of us, as an alum, visited campus in 2019 to see a BPAL colloquy with Professors Cornel West and Robby George, we were shocked to hear a representative of today’s student government say she had never experienced such an event presenting multiple viewpoints, and that she felt certain that if funding such an event had been put to a vote by the current student government, she would be the only one in favor. That is a 180-degree turn from earlier days!
The student who said that, incidentally, was a progressive, and told Robby George, who is a conservative, that she did not agree with what he had to say—but she wanted to hear more of it so she could better understand and articulate how and why she disagreed. That is what the Open Discourse Coalition is all about. That is why we have attracted supporters from every graduation decade since the 1950s and from a diversity of races, faiths, sexualities, genders, political persuasions, and corners of America (and beyond). That is why we seek to fund speakers with all kinds of viewpoints. We ourselves do not agree with one another on many contested issues, or with many of the individuals whose work we have supported in the past. We are not here just to promulgate views with which we agree. We are here for, as the name says, open discourse. That is what the student who shared her concerns with Robby George and Cornel West wanted, she deserves it, and when she says she can’t get what she needs through official channels, we not only believe her, we are committed to doing something about it.
We are proud to be supporting such engaging speakers, not to mention funding tens of thousands of dollars and counting in student and faculty research and sponsoring seminars with visiting professors, and we want to do much more. We will do it in our current form as long as we have to. But what we really want is for our alma mater to open the door, officially and proudly, to programming that many students are demanding, to students and faculty who feel unsafe exercising their academic freedom, and to alumni who are incredulous and alienated. And we want that because it would be best for students and best for Bucknell.
In all of these ways, we and those who have joined in this work since November 2020 are supporting our alma mater and its true mission. We must continue forward, and we will.
Sincerely,
Denise Chaykun Weaver ’04
Co-Founder and Interim COO
Allison Kasic ’05
Co-Founder and Chair
Charles Mitchell ’05
Co-Founder and President